New Delhi, June 16: The government is understood to
have put on hold the implementation of report of the spectrum
committee which suggested auction of radio waves beyond 6.2
MHz for existing 2G services.
Since the committee, headed by Additional Secretary
Subodh Kumar, suggested that the pricing of 2G spectrum should
be related to the auction price of 3G, it may, therefore, be
appropriate to consider the recommendations of this committee
after 3G auction, highly placed sources said.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) is likely to take the
issue of 3G spectrum auction to the Cabinet Committee on
Economic Affairs (CCEA) this month only and is expecting to
hold auction some time in August.
Going by this, the big telecom operators having spectrum
beyond 6.2 MHz can breathe easy as any decision on pricing the
extra frequency would be taken only after August.
Earlier, the DoT had obtained the price of spectrum for
those having it beyond 6.2 MHz at Rs 267 crore per MHz plus
indexing it by PLR from the date of assignment of spectrum.
Due to strong opposition from certain quarters this could
not be implemented.
Currently, DoT has been allocating extra spectrum beyond
6.2 MHz on the basis of subscriber norms and charges fixed
spectrum fee based on quantity held by a respective operator.
Bureau Report
