The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has recommended lowering the base price for CDMA spectrum by 50 per cent for the forthcoming spectrum auction, says news reports.
The government plans to auction CDMA and GSM spectrum (in the 1800 MHz and 900 MHz bands) in March 2013. Meanwhile, it has asked the cabinet to decide whether the reserve price for CDMA spectrum auction in the 800 MHz band should be lowered.
The EGoM has recommended reducing the reserve price of CDMA spectrum to encourage participation from these operators in the auction. CDMA players did not participate in the recently concluded auction, on grounds that the base price was too high. The government had set the reserve price for CDMA spectrum 1.3 times higher than GSM spectrum.
The EGoM has also approved a plan to kick off the second round of the spectrum auction from March 11, 2013 onwards.
