The Telecom Commission (TC) finally on Wednesday gave its recommendations to an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on the reserve price of pan-India mobile phone spectrum. The commission has advised to raise the reserve price for 1800 megahertz (MHz) to 15 per cent higher than Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) suggestion and 25 per cent higher in case of key circles like Delhi and Mumbai.
The commission at its meeting also recommended that the reserve price for 900 MHz be fixed 25 per cent higher than what the Trai had suggested. Even after advising a hike in reserve prices, the rates recommended by Telecom Commission would still be much lower than the previous auction price.
As per sources, the new base price per MHz in 1800 band for Delhi is being suggested to be Rs 218.90 crore, Mumbai Rs 206.74 crore and Kolkata Rs 73.13 crore. This is 25 per cent more than Trai recommended price of Rs 175.12 crore for Delhi, Rs 165.39 crore for Mumbai and Rs 58.50 crore for Kolkata.
Similarly for 900 Mhz spectrum, the base price per MHz will be Rs 359.65 crore for Delhi, Rs 327.50 crore for Mumbai and Rs 125.27 crore for Kolkata as compared to Trai’s recommendation of Rs 287.72 crore for Delhi, Rs 262 crore for Mumbai and Rs 100.22 crore for Kolkata.
Trai earlier had recommended up to 60 per cent cut in the auction reserve price for 900 MHz spectrum band in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata circles. Along with that the regulator also suggested 37 per cent cut in the reserve price for spectrum in the 1800 MHz band. As a result, the base price will increase by about 25 per cent in the eight circles and the pan-India price will be up by 15 per cent.
Source further added that the commission during the meeting also decided to conduct auction for 800 Mhz spectrum. Commenting on TC’s decision to hold another round of 800 MHz auction, spokesperson of Sistema Shyam Teleservices said, “Sistema Shyam TeleServices ltd (SSTl) welcomes the decision of the Telecom Commission to auction the 800 Mhz spectrum band.”
Another major decision which TC took was to approve the new merger & acquisition (M&A) policy. Sources said the commission also approved the M&A policy, allowing mergers of entities with a combined market share of up to 50 per cent. Earlier there was a cap of 35 per cent market share of the combined entity under the old M&A policy.