After facing criticism from all factions of the telecom industry for its recommendations on the auction of spectrum, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) may review its recommendations on the subject, say news reports.
However, the regulator has specified that it will do so only if the government deems it necessary. Meanwhile, the Telecom Commission will reportedly meet on May 24 to discuss the same.
Prior to this, the Telecom Commission had asked the regulator to clarify its stand on certain recommendations.
Thereafter, TRAI reiterated its stand on several of its recommendations, such as fixing a high base price for the upcoming auctions and on spectrum refarming.
The regulator had recommended a base price of Rs 36.22 billion per megahertz (MHz) for pan-India spectrum in the 1800 Mhz band. This figure is almost 10 times higher than the price at which 2G licences bundled with 4.4 MHz spectrum were allocated in 2008.
TRAI has also recommended that the price of spectrum in the 800 Mhz and 900 Mhz bands should be double the price of 1,800 Mhz.
The regulator also said that a refarming fund was necessary to compensate existing users when they upgraded their equipment.
