EGoM to decide on spectrum prices: Telecom Commission

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Commission on Saturday decided to ask a panel of ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee to fix reserve price for airwaves in the upcoming auctions. The Commission also rejected Trai’s proposal to allow companies to stagger their payments for spectrum bagged through the bidding process, telecoms secretary R Chandrasekhar told ET on Sunday.

It favours the regulator’s plan to permit mobile phone companies to mortgage spectrum to raise funds from financial institutions, but the finance ministry in consultations with the Reserve Bank of India must take a final call on this, he added.

“We have not made a value judgment on the reserve price recommended by Trai. So, we have neither agreed nor rejected Trai’s proposals,” Chandrasekhar said. “We are not referring the matter back to Trai or asking for fresh recommendations. We want them to do an analysis covering various scenarios which can be presented to the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) so that it can take a balanced decision,” the secretary said.

Last month, Trai had proposed that mobile phone companies that lost their permits after the Supreme Court cancelled licences awarded in the scandaltainted 2008 sale, as well as incumbents pay a minimum

Rs 3622.18 crore for every unit of 2G spectrum in the 1800 MHz band. Trai has to first present its analysis on the 1800 Mhz and 800 MHz frequency bands used for second generation GSM and CDMA services respectively as the Supreme Court has mandated that this spectrum sale be completed by August 31.