Spectrum auction meeting on 7 June

Cellular towers in China
The Telecom Commission is expected to meet on June 7 to discuss spectrum auction modalities, PTI reports.

Earlier, Indian telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the spectrum auction will be conducted in the next 2-3 months. At present, there are apprehensions that some of the telecom network operators will not buy the costly 700 MHz spectrum during the forthcoming auction.

India Government expects to earn total revenue of Rs 99,000 crore from the telecom sector during the current financial year.

Meanwhile, India’s Defense Ministry has decided to vacate telecom spectrum worth Rs 30,000 crore in order to sell during the proposed auction in July.

The India government will offer 15 MHz of 3G spectrum or 2100 MHz in each of 22 telecom circles and 201 MHz of spectrum in 1800 MHz band for mobile services, PTI reported.

With this, the total value of spectrum to be put up for sale will increase to Rs 5.66 lakh crore.

Telecom ministry headed by Ravi Shankar Prasad proposed to exchange 15 MHz spectrum it holds in 1900 MHz band with same quantum of airwaves held by the Defense in 2100 MHz band. The 2100 MHz band is currently used for 3G mobile services.

In January 2015, the Union Cabinet approved swapping of spectrum between ministries of Telecom and Defense and process was to be completed in a year as part of harmonization of all radio waves among all ministries.

The report said the government has asked all ministries and departments such as Aviation, Space, Prasar Bharti, Defense, Telecom etc that are holding spectrum to harmonize radio waves among themselves, identify timeline by when will they be able to vacate spectrum not marked for them in 4-5 years.

Indian telecom regulator TRAI suggested pan-India base price of Rs 3,746 crore for 3G spectrum in 2100 band.