Telecom Commission seeks clarity on spectrum auction price

The Telecom Commission is seeking clarity on 2G spectrum auction issues including the auction base price from the sector regulator, whose proposals have drawn howls of protests from mobile carriers.

"We wanted to understand the basis on which this reserve price has been arrived at... what is the likely impact on tariff," Telecoms Secretary R. Chandrashekhar said after a meeting of the commission, the highest decision-making body within the telecoms ministry.

"The Telecom Commission has not arrived at any judgment as of now whether the reserve price is too high or too low," he said.

A panel of ministers has the final say on the auction rules.

India will conduct an airwaves auction by end-August after the Supreme Court ordered cancellation of all cellular permits awarded in a scandal-tainted 2008 sale process and asked the government to redistribute airwaves through open bidding.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the sector regulator, this month proposed an auction starting price that is a near 10-fold increase from what carriers had paid in 2008 among other proposals including selling just 5 mega hertz spectrum per zone.