DoT decides to mull TRAI view on 2G spectrum auction (India)

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Department of Telecom has decided to seek TRAI’s view before taking a call whether the radio waves should be auctioned to operators. A senior DoT official said the report would be sent to TRAI to give its comment on the host of suggestions that the Kumar panel has given in the report. Prominent among the recommendations is the one on whether 2G spectrum should be auctioned for both new and existing players.

For the existing players, the report suggests that spectrum be auctioned beyond 6.2 Mhz. For new players, spectrum and the licence are delinked so that for 4.4 Mhz of start-up spectrum they also have to go through auction.

2G spectrum matters only after the 3G spectrum auction issues are settled. In the interim, DoT has referred the committee report to TRAI for its views. The report calls for spectrum trading between operators with the government getting its share in such trades. This, it felt, would lead to consolidation in the telecom space with more mergers and acquisitions.

As of now, there is a freeze on spectrum allocation as no spectrum beyond the start-up 4.4 MHz is being allotted.