The Indian Telecom Regulator, TRAI has released its set of recommendations for the forthcoming Auction of 1800Mhz. Key Recommendations to the Ministry of Telecom & DoT are as follows,
- No reservation of spectrum for the Renewal Licensees in 900 or 1800 MHz bands and everybody has to win spectrum through the auction. TRAI asks DoT to come out with the clear road map of Spectrum [This is the first Recommendation I had given before the Nov-2012 auction]
- For 1 MHz of PAN India Spectrum in 1800MHz band, the Reserve Price has been reduced from Rs 2,800 Crore to Rs 1,496 Crore
- The Authority recommends that the frequency rearrangement in the same band, from within the assignments made to the licensees, should be permitted, amongst all licensees irrespective of whether the spectrum is liberalised or not
- TSPs should be allowed to convert their existing 1800 MHz spectrum into liberalised spectrum only for the balance validity period of the spectrum assignment on payment of the auction determined amount. [This will be helpful for incumbent operators in case if they want to rollout 1800Mhz 4g Data Services on existing spectrum instead of just plain vanilla 2G Voice services. With unused 3G capacity, they are unlikely to convert or even if they do, they will go selectively where they don’t have 3G spectrum of their own]
- The Authority recommends that the feasibility of adoption of E-GSM should be explored in a time-bound manner.
- The Authority recommends that spectrum trading should be permitted in the country. Initially, only outright transfer of spectrum should be permitted [In-line with my recommendation to the TRAI]
- The Authority recommends that the Government should announce the detailed guidelines on the subject of sharing of spectrum before the initiation of the auction process [This is to avoid controversies like that has happened in the aftermath of 3G Auction, DoT first said Intra-Circle roaming is valid and later backtracked because of massive Corruption in the DoT]
Overall, the DoT must implement all of these recommendations in the spirit and National Interest as they are progressive in nature for the entire telecommunications industry and the eco-system.
Update The following Chart Shows the Difference in Nov-2012 Auction reserve Price vs Current Recommended Reserve Price for 1800MHz Spectrum in India
