The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has taken a decision to allow existing operators to retain spectrum upto 2.5 MHz spectrum in the 900 MHz band.
Earlier, there was a proposal to ask operators to give up the entire spectrum held by them in the 900 MHz band. EGoM took the decision on the re-farming of spectrum held by the existing operators in its meeting held on November 1, 2012.
Following, EGoM?s decision on re-farming, existing operators like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India will have to pay a market determined price for 2.5 MHz of spectrum retained by them in the 900 MHz band. The rest of the spectrum available will be put up for auction in the forthcoming 2G spectrum auction. The existing operators giving up spectrum in the 900 MHz band will be given spectrum in the 1800 MHz band.
The partial re-farming of spectrum will allow the government with additional spectrum in the 900 MHz, which can be used to accommodate an additional player when the spectrum actions are held in 2013.
