  Eight private telecom operators including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Reliance Jio, Tata Docomo, Aircel and Uninor on Monday submitted applications to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction starting March 4. However Sistema Shyam TeleServices (MTS India), BSNL, MTNL and Videocon Telecom are some of mobile service providers, which are not participating in the spectrum auction.
DoT has fixed the pan-India per megahertz reserve price for the 800MHz CDMA band at Rs 3,646 crore; for the 900 MHz band Rs 3,980 crore (excluding Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and J&K); for the 1,800MHz band Rs 2,191 crore (excluding Maharashtra and West Bengal) and for 2,100 MHz Rs 3,705 crore.
While 5MHz of frequency will be auctioned in the 3G band of 2,100 MHz, a total of 380.75MHz will be sold in other frequencies — 103.75MHz in 800MHz band, 177.8 MHz (in 17 circles) in the 900 MHz band and 99.2MHz (in 15 circles) in the 1,800MHz band.
The government expects to mop up Rs 75,000 – Rs 100,000 crore from the auction.
Seven licenses each of Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications, four licenses of Bharti Airtel and six licenses of Vodafone will complete their 20-year term in December 2015, after which they have to be renewed. |