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The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has approved the reserve price recommended by the Telecom Commission for spectrum to be auctioned in the 1800 MHz and the 900 MHz bands in the forthcoming spectrum auction.
While the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had suggested a base price of Rs 14.96 billion for 1 MHz of pan-India spectrum in the 1800 MHz band, the Telecom Commission, had pegged the reserve price at Rs 17.65 billion.
For spectrum in the 900 MHz band, the EGoM has approved the Telecom Commission?s proposal to increase the reserve price by 25 per cent in the Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata circles.
Besides approving the reserve price for the spectrum to be auctioned in both bands, the EGoM has asked the Department of Telecommunications to send a fresh reference to TRAI to decide the reserve price for the spectrum to be auctioned in the 800 MHz band.
The government is looking to raise about Rs 400 billion from the next round of spectrum auction. However, the EGoM did not take a decision on other key issues including mergers and acquisition policy and the spectrum usage charge.
