Telecom Lead India: India’s Telecom Commission wants at least 10 MHz of
airwaves to be auctioned in each telecom circle.
TRAI, in its recommendation, had suggested 5 MHz.
The commission is yet to take a decision on the auction
base price. It will meet again on Saturday.
Telecom industry rejects TRAI base-price for 2G 4G
spectrum auction
TRAI, in its recommendations, had fixed reserve price for
900 MHz at Rs 7,244 crore, while that for 1800 MHz was fixed at Rs 3,622 crore.
The price is 10 times higher than what was fixed during the first round of
spectrum allotment in 2008.
Telecom Commission chairman Chandrashekhar said the
Commission agreed that all airwaves assigned to companies in the future would
be liberalized. This will allow operators to use any spectrum for any kind of
services.
According to Telecom Commission, existing rollout
obligations for telecom operators should be maintained. TRAI’s recommendations
on rural rollout obligations will not be conducive for getting high prices
through auction.
Telecom Commission pointed out that infrastructure in
rural areas could be funded through spectrum usage charge.
TRAI underestimates the cost per minute impact by around 50
percent
Recently, PwC and COAI’s assessment estimated that the
cost per minute to a subscriber will increase by a range of 29-34 paisa
compared to 4.4 paisa (FY13) as estimated by TRAI.
The paper points out further that TRAI assumes in its
operator estimate that MOU per subscriber will grow by 83 percent in the 20
year period while in the last four years MOU per subscriber has declined by 13
percent per annum.
