Telecom Lead India: The Telecom Commission will present
the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by finance minister Pranab
Mukherjee, the option of halving the airwaves tenure to 10 years, which if
accepted will lower amounts for airwaves in the upcoming auctions.
A reduced tenure will bring down the reserve price or the
minimum price of the airwaves in the upcoming sale process. At present,
airwaves sold through auctions, or even those that were issued to companies
bundled with their mobile permits are valid for a 20-year period.
“We have asked Trai to work out the reserve price if
the spectrum is given for a 10-year period. Halving the period of possession of
airwaves does not imply that the reserve price will be 50% of what Trai had
recommended earlier. This is one of the options that will be presented to the
EGoM,” said Telecom Secretary R Chandrasekhar.
The EGoM will meet on June 5 to take a final call on issues
related to spectrum auction.
The Commission is also of the view that 10-year tenure for
spectrum will enable mobile phone companies to raise the requisite funds to pay
for this resource. Also, it wants at least 10 MHz of airwaves to be auctioned
in each telecom circle. However, TRAI, in its recommendation, had suggested 5
MHz.
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 industry rejects TRAI base-price for 2G 4G
spectrum auction
All operators had slammed the regulator and termed the
reserve price as being ‘exorbitantly high’ while also warning that the steep
increase in spectrum costs could lead to a 100% hike in tariffs.
“The TC has rejected Trai’s proposal to allow
companies stagger their payments for spectrum bagged through the bidding
process. Under this scenario, most operators may not be raise funds for an
upfront payment. Reducing the airwaves possession to 10 years will lead to
operators have to pay a significantly lower amount upfront,” a telecom ministry
official said.
Telecom Commission asks TRAI to evaluate airwaves auction price
The Telecom Commission asked TRAI to analyse the
potential impact of a proposed airwaves auction base price on subscribers,
operators and government revenues.
editor@telecomlead.com
