Telecom Commission to meet on Oct 3 on spectrum auction

Inter-ministerial body Telecom Commission is scheduled to meet on October 3 to discuss modalities of the third round of spectrum auction, which is expected to be held in January 2014.

"The DoT panel studying TRAI's recommendation has said that it will submit report by September 30. This report will be circulated to members of the Telecom Commission. The meeting has been scheduled for October 3," sources said.

After the Telecom Commission arrives at a conclusion, the views of the inter-ministerial panel will be placed before Empowered Group of Ministers on spectrum, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Government in the Budget has made provision of getting about Rs 11,000 crore from spectrum auctions. Telecom regulator Trai in its recommendations has suggested up to 60 percent cut in the floor price of mobile phone spectrum for the upcoming auction after two previous sales drew lukewarm response due to high reserve price.

The DoT formed an internal committee, headed by Member (Technology), on September 9 when TRAI gave its suggestions. The panel was formed to study and submit the report after analysing the recommendations made by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Trai has suggested a pan-India reserve price of Rs 1,496 crore per MHz in the 1800 band, down 37 percent from the base price set in the previous auction.

In the 900 MHz band, it recommended a reserve price of Rs 288 crore per MHz for Delhi, Rs 262 crore for Mumbai and Rs 100 crore for Kolkata. These rates are about 60 percent lower than the reserve price set in the previous auction.

Trai has recommended that government should not auction CDMA spectrum for now. This faced criticism from Russian conglomerate Sistema controlled SSTL.

The regulator's suggestion to increase spectrum usage fee charged annually on wireless broadband spectrum, that can be used for 4G services, from 1 percent to 3 percent has been severely criticised by Reliance Jio Infocomm.

The industry representations received by the DoT in the matter will also be placed before the Telecom Commission, sources added.