Third spectrum auction in Aug; telcos have to bid: Sources

Even as companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communication stayed away from spectrum auction held in March, the Department of Telecom is gearing up for another round of spectrum auction in August. Spectrum EGoM will be meeting by the end of this month to finalise the reserve price for the third auction round, CNBC-TV18's Malvika Jain reports.

The auction will be for 800, 900 and 1800 Mhz spectrum. Sources say the DoT will make it compulsory for all telecom players to participate in the auction. They say no licence extension will be given unless telcos bid for spectrum. That means, if telcos have to continue with their business, they will have to bid for spectrum.
Telecom players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea argue that since they were given spectrum under an earlier regime, their licenses should be extended along with spectrum. Their licenses are coming up for renewal in 2014 in some circles.
In March, none of the telcos participated in the auction, especially for 900 Megahertz (Mhz) band spectrum, which is considered to be more efficient spectrum band.