DoT’s 3G spectrum pricing gets a thumbs up from TRAI (India)The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, approved the proposal the Department of Telecom on the issue related to pricing and auction of the 3G mobile spectrum, to cause no further delays in 3G’s roll out. However, the announcement of the policy will be after July 22, once UPA government survives the vote of confidence in the Parliament.
“The Authority is of the view that incidence of financial burden should be estimated in totality and isolated or piecemeal hikes with a view to mopping up additional revenue may hurt the growth of infrastructure and in the long run the telecom sector itself. However, as the reserve prices are only to fix the minimum price and the final price is determined through the auction process, the Authority in order not to further delay the process of roll out of 3G services in India agrees with the reserve price proposed by DoT.” TRAI said.
The DoT’s proposal states a higher reserve price of about Rs.2,260 crore, exactly double the price recommended by the TRAI, for telecom companies that want to participate in a pan-India auction for 3G spectrum.In the proposal , the base price for metros and category A circles is Rs 160 crore, while for category B and C circles it is Rs 80 crore and Rs 30 crore respectively.
In order to accelerate the allocation process, India’s Telecom Commission will cogitate on DoT’s guidelines on the 3G spectrum auction.Telecom Minister A Raja ensures to bring out the policy within next two weeks. He has already got the Prime Minister’s approval to go ahead with 3G spectrum auction that is likely to see foreign players’ participation in the bids.
On the other hand, TRAI does not favour the participation of foriegn players in the bid, which according to the Telecom Minister, will fetch a big money to the exchequer of the country. Companies like AT&T Inc, Deutsche Telekom AG, Etisalat and NTT DoCoMo have already expressed interest in the Indian market.
