Telecom companies may be disappointed with the “high price” of 700 MHz band in the spectrum auction slated for July, but Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has made it clear that the pricing was arrived at after following prescribed procedures. He also assured operators that there would be no dearth of spectrum.

“As far as pricing (of 700MHz band) is concerned, the regulator gave its recommendations and these were reconsidered. Therefore, the pricing has been arrived at by the prescribed procedure,” Prasad told BusinessLine in an interview

Telecom players such as Vodafone and Airtel, have threatened to skip the 700MHz band (being sought for 4G services) auction, saying they “cannot afford” to participate at such a price. The telecom regulator has recommended a reserve price of ₹11,485 crore per unit for this lucrative band.

Asserting that more spectrum would be available “as we are getting it from the Defence, too”, Prasad said: “operators cannot complain that there is spectrum scarcity.”

“My simple point is that additional spectrum of 2,000 MHz is being made available for this year’s auction, whenever we finally decide to go for it”, he added.

Asked about new projects like Microsoft’s white space technology, which the company has successfully tested, and whether the government would allow such technology for broadband in unused spectrum, Prasad said the government was open to new ideas and new projects. “Pilot projects are most welcome, but their ultimate adoption will have to await detailed security considerations as well (Defence/homeland securities),” he added.

Jaypee pullout Asked if the Centre was considering a review of its semiconductor policy following Jaypee consortium’s recent pullout from a ₹34,000-crore project, Prasad said: “That (Jaypee issue) was because of its own local issue. The company’s capacity was derailed because of debts.”

He said India was becoming a major hub of electronics manufacturing and “there are many who are in contact and want to invest”, adding that “we have rationalised duties and given incentives.”

“In May 2014, there were investment proposals worth ₹11,924 crore. Now, this stands at ₹1,21,502 crore. Mobile handset growth is 83 per cent (11 crore handsets were manufactured last year). LCD/LED televisions have grown 37 per cent, LED lights 65 per cent, notebooks (laptops) 17 per cent, and desktop PCs 27 per cent. This is the growth of 2014-15 in comparison to 2013-14. We are collecting the 2015-16 numbers, which will be shared soon,” he added.

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