Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today released consultation paper on valuation and reserve price of spectrum licences expiring in 2015-16.
This follows DoT’s (Department of Telecommunications) letter dated 17 April 2014 seeking TRAI’s recommendations on the applicable reserve price for all the service areas for the auction of spectrum in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands.
The key issues raised in the consultation paper are contiguity of spectrum, the block size, valuation and reserve price of spectrum in 900 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum bands.
Idea Cellular, Vodafone India, Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel will have to participate in the spectrum auction to keep their operations running.
29 CMTS licenses given in 1995-1996 are due to expire between December 2015 and April 2016.
TRAI said currently there is no spectrum available with the Government in the 900 MHz band. Spectrum becoming available because of licenses expiring in 2015-16 is the only spectrum that can be put for auction.
184 MHz of spectrum is being held by these licensees in the 900 MHz band. As per the information provided by the WPC, 135 MHz out of the total 184 MHz spectrum is available in contiguous blocks of 5 MHz while the remaining 49 MHz spectrum is non-contiguous.
TRAI said spectrum availability in the 900 MHz band varies from 4.4 MHz to 15.6 MHz in different LSAs.
Available spectrum is fragmented and non-contiguous. Overall availability of spectrum in the 900 MHz band is limited, while a considerable chunk of it is available in disjointed / non-contiguous form. In 7 LSAs, only one block of contiguous 5 MHz is available.
TRAI says before conducting the auction the Government should explore the possibility of making available one additional block of 5 MHz contiguous spectrum in the 900 MHz band in the 6 LSAs by (a) redistributing the spectrum amongst TSPs and other Government users to make 5.6 MHz of spectrum in Punjab LSA contiguous and (b) make additional spectrum of 1 MHz in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and 0.6 MHz spectrum in West Bengal in the 900 MHz band so as to make available one additional block of 5 MHz in these LSAs.
The majority of the spectrum held under licenses expiring in 2015-16 is in the 900 MHz band. However, a small amount of spectrum (34.2MHz) in the 1800 MHz band is also held by such licensee. Some part of this spectrum (8.2 MHz) is lying in the Defence Band (1765 MHz-1785 MHz/1860 MHz-1880 MHz) band); hence, it cannot be reassigned to the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs).
