Telcos to contest Trai views on auction pricing before DoT

Telcos to contest Trai views on auction pricing before DoT

FPJ BureauUpdated: Friday, May 31, 2019, 06:24 PM IST
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New Delhi : Telecom operators will approach DoT to contest Trai’s recommendations on spectrum auctions, especially on pricing of the premium 700 Mhz band.

 “We will write to DoT by the end of next week for deferring auction of 700 Mhz band and on possible errors in calculation of price of 700 Mhz band (spectrum). Trai has fixed priced based on formula given 2012. Lot of things in the industry have changed since then,” COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews told PTI.

  Leading operators had requested the regulator to defer sale of 700 MHz spectrum, saying that ecosystem for providing services in this band was not developed and sale would lead to under-utilisation of the spectrum for several years and block industry’s crucial fund. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended a record high base price of Rs 11,485 crore per Mhz for 700 Mhz which alone. If all the available frequencies gets sold at Trai suggested price then it alone will yield a whopping Rs 4 lakh crore.

As per Trai’s paper, the cost of delivering mobile services in 700 Mhz band is approximately 70 per cent lower than 2100 Mhz band, which is widely used for 3G services.The auction plan suggested by total potential revenue of Rs 5.36 lakh crore from the spectrum sale, expected to be held during May-June this year, is more than the double of gross revenues of telecom services industry.

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