The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by finance minsiter P Chidambaram on Thursday provided some relief to incumbent telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications, BSNL and MTNL, allowing them to retain up to 2.5 Mhz of spectrum in the more efficient 900-MHz band.

Earlier the Telecom Commission in its meeting it had recommended for the refarming of all spectrum in the 900-MHz band.

On the issue of price, telecom minister Kapil Sibal said after the meeting that that the operators would have to pay market determined price when 900-MHz spectrum go for auction next year. .

The telecom panel had asked the regulator TRAI to have a re-look at the contentious issue while suggesting that the incumbent players be allowed to retain to retain up to 2.5 MHz spectrum.

Trai had suggested the reserve price for spectrum in the 900 MHz band,at over Rs 36,000 crore and Rs 14,000 crore for the 1,800 MHz band. This was vehemently opposed by the telecom firms.