India regulator recommends auction of CDMA

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) yesterday recommended auction of CDMA or 800 MHz band airwaves at Rs2,685 crore per megahertz reserve price, an official release said.

The recommendation said the entire available spectrum with the Department of Telecom (DoT) in the 800 MHz band should be put to auction. “The DoT recommends that the reserve price for the forthcoming auction of 800 MHz spectrum should be fixed at 80% of the average valuation,” it said.

However, the industry players in CDMA feel the base price stipulated by the TRAI is too high. “The price is too high and I feel at this price there will be very few takers,” Ashok Sud, secretary general, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, said.

During this band’s last auction in March 2013, its reserve price was around Rs1,800 crore per MHz.

TRAI also said at least one chunk of contiguous 5 MHz spectrum should be carved out before the auction. “The carrier reassignment may be carried out amongst the existing TSPs in the 800 MHz band to make at least four contiguous carriers available.”