The Department of Telecommunications (Ministry of Communications & Information Technology) had sought recommendations on “Reserve Price for Auction of Spectrum in the 800 MHz Band” from TRAI. TRAI, after consulting stakeholders and doing some further analysis, have come up with the following recommendations:
- They should auction the entire available spectrum with the DoT in the 800 MHz band.
- At least one chunk of contiguous 5 MHz spectrum (i.e. 4 carriers) should be carved out before the auction. The carrier reassignment, if required, may be carried out amongst the existing TSPs in the 800 MHz band to make at least 4 contiguous carriers available. Alternatively, the NIA for the auction may clearly stipulate that only contiguous blocks of 5 MHz will be sold. However, the reconfiguration of the frequencies should be worked out while auction is underway so that the reassignment is possible to be effected on completion of the auction.
- Spectrum in the 800 MHz band should be auctioned in a block size of 1.25 MHz.
- A new entrant i.e. a TSP which does not have any spectrum holding in the 800 MHz band must bid for a minimum of 4 carriers. However, an existing TSP i.e. a TSP having some spectrum holding in the 800 MHz band should be permitted to bid for a minimum 1 block of spectrum. New entrants must be assigned the earmarked contiguous carriers only.
- The Authority recommends that the reserve price for the forthcoming auction of 800 MHz spectrum should be fixed at 80% of the average valuation.
Mind Map: