Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said the reserve price for 2100 MHz or 3G spectrum auction will be Rs 3,705 crore per megahertz (MHz) in India.
Top 3G telecom service providers in India include Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Tata Docomo, BSNL and MTNL.
The government will be conducting the 3G spectrum auction on March 4.
“In 2010 3G auction, the government fixed Rs 700 crore per MHz reserve price and in the auction the then government earned Rs 3,350 crore per MHz, almost 8 times of the reserve price,” said Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Earlier, the Telecom Commission suggested a base price of Rs 3,705 crore per MHz for 3G spectrum base price.
The base price suggested by the panel is around 11 percent higher than what telecom companies paid for in the 2010 auction, said an IANS report.
It is also 36 percent higher than TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India)’s recommendation of Rs 2,720 crore per Mhz.
Earlier, several telecom operators demanded for spectrum to ensure seamless connectivity to Indian mobile users.
