Clarity on spectrum usage charges (SUC) from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to the Department of Telecom (DoT) is expected by end of this week or early next week. This follows concerns raised by the telecom industry with regard to pricing for the mega auction planned for September. “It (clarity) may come by end of this week or early next week, so that we can start the process ,” a senior government official told BusinessLine .
Bone of contention The Cabinet on June 22 had decided to send the issue of SUC back to TRAI, even though it had cleared other issues related to the upcoming auctions. There was a controversy around the SUC because on the one hand, Reliance Communications (now Reliance Jio) was paying SUC at 1 per cent and others, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, were paying more than 4 per cent.
A lot of consultation, plus the opinion of the Attorney General had been taken on the issue of SUC and, therefore, it was decided that TRAI should again give clear views on SUC so as to avoid any discrepancy.
The Centre had earned about ₹7,000 crore through SUCs only in 2014-15, which will now be taken as the minimum floor price.
The Telecom Commission, in its meeting on April 30, had cleared the auction of all available spectrum at the reserve price suggested by TRAI. The upcoming auction is expected to generate around ₹5.36-lakh crore to the exchequer. This will be the biggest-ever telecom spectrum auction, and also the first after ‘trading and sharing of spectrum’ has been cleared by the Centre.
Bands up for bids There will be a total of 2142 MHz put up for auction in the major bands including – 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz and 2500MHz.
While the reserve price of the 700 MHz band – the most expensive band – has been fixed at ₹11,500 crore per MHz, TRAI has recommended the reserve price of 1800MHz at ₹2,873 crore.
For spectrum in 900 MHz band, 800 MHz band, 2100 MHz band and 2300 MHz band, the reserve price has been fixed at ₹3,341 crore, ₹5,819 crore, ₹3,746 crore and ₹817 crore, respectively.