Telecom Lead India: In order to address concerns posed by
Indian cellular operators over proposed reserve price for spectrum auction, the
Telecom Commission has asked TRAI to analyse the potential impact of a
proposed airwaves auction base price on subscribers, operators and
government revenues.
The regulator, under the chairmanship of JS Sarma, had twice
submitted their calculation to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and
this will be third such calculation by the regulator in a month-and-a-half.
Furthermore, Telecoms Secretary R.Chandrashekhar said
that the Commission has endorsed a separate regulatory proposal to auction
airwaves in another band by June next year, reported Economics Times.
In addition, he added that the Telecom Commission feels
there is need of a detailed analysis of the impact of the proposed auction
price on call tariffs and carriers’ investments before a decision is taken.
TRAI has recommended re-farming of the entire 800/900 MHz
holding at the earliest before the first set of licenses come up for renewal in
2014. Currently, the old incumbent operators hold spectrum in these two bands.
The industry has criticized the high base price and
limited number of slots proposed by the regulator and says the regulatory
changes will cost them billions of dollars more, hurting profits, and will
force them to increase tariffs for customers.
Re-farming of spectrum will harm incumbents: Assocham
According to Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry), the
re-farming of spectrum will affect the profits of incumbent service providers.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
Communications Minister Kapil Sibal, Assocham said, “The proposed
immediate re-farming of spectrum would be detrimental for incumbents like Bharti
Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, MTNL/BSNL, Reliance Communications and Tata
Teleservices who have considerable share of spectrum in the 900/800 MHz
category.”
editor@telecomlead.com