2G spectrum auction: New guidelines for telecom industry

Telecom Lead India: Department of Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar has announced few more guidelines for operators who are participating in the 2G spectrum auction that is slated for November 2012.

Existing telecom players bidding in bands where they don’t hold spectrum will be treated as new entrants in airwave auction slated for November.

If an operator has spectrum in one band but wants to bid in another band where it doesn’t have spectrum, it would be treated as new entrant and has to bid for the minimum number of slots which a new entrant is required to bid.

A new player has to bid for a minimum of four blocks of spectrum in 1800 Mhz band or two blocks in 800 Mhz band in each service area.

The complete guidelines for the license will be completed within three months.

The pending issues include:

1)      migration of licences of existing players

2)      bringing telecom tower companies under the licensing regime

3)      scope on unified license

The government said the net worth requirement is Rs 2.5 crore per service area and entry fee is Rs 1 crore per service area for. For Jammu & Kashmir and North East, the fee is Rs 50 lakh.

The net worth required for the purpose of participation in the auction is Rs 100 crore per service area and Rs 50 crore for J-K and North East, this translates into a net worth requirement on a pan India basis at Rs 2,100 crore for 22 service areas.

The paid up equity of an applicant company would be 1/10th of the net worth for each service area.

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