Indian mobile operators and industry bodies have expressed concerns about the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) proposals on 2G auction prices.
Trai recommended on Monday that the reserve price for 5MHz of 700MHz band should be set at…
Indian mobile operators and industry bodies have expressed concerns about the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) proposals on 2G auction prices.
Trai recommended on Monday that the reserve price for 5MHz of 700MHz band should be set at Rs72.44bn (US$1.37bn), for 5MHz of 800/900MHz band at Rs36.22bn (US$685m), and for 5MHz of 1800Mhz band at 18.11bn (US$343m).
No date has been announced yet for the new 2G auction, which is aimed at allowing operators to bid for spectrum again after their licences were revoked by India’s Supreme Court in early February. But the Supreme Court has ordered that the auction should take place by 31 August this year.
However, there are concerns that the proposed prices for spectrum will have a negative impact on the industry as a whole.
In an emailed statement, Norway’s Telenor, which controls Indian carrier Uninor, said: “While we study them in detail, it seems obvious that some of these recommendations will create severe negative impact on the entire telecom industry in India. It is up to the political leadership of India to now ensure that the gains of the past few years of affordable phone calls for India’s people are not undone.”
Similarly, Vodafone India said that these recommendations “are retrograde and, if accepted, will do irreparable harm to the industry. It will hamper the ability to connect the unconnected and goes against the objectives of the National Telecom Policy of ensuring improved rural tele-density and right to broadband.”
A Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) spokesperson declined to comment, saying that it was too premature.
The Association of Unified Telecom Service providers of India (AUSPI) said, for its part, that these recommendations will “adversely impact public interests considerably in not promoting the tele-density improvement by having spectrum at reasonable price and thus would eliminate competition and would lead to monopoly tariffs and create non-level playing field.”
The Trai proposals are now expected to be examined by the Department of Telecommunications.
