Mjunction to conduct spectrum auctions

NEW DELHI: Mjunction, a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL, will conduct telecom spectrum auctions starting October 1this year. The telecom department, however, approved Mjunction last year to conduct spectrum sale for three years.

The auction, touted to be the largest ever, will start on October 1 and the mock auction will be held on September 26 and 27, as per the revised notice inviting application (NIA).

The sale could raise about Rs 5,60,000 crore for the government if all auctions on offer are bought at base price. But the industry expects muted response to the auctions given that there are no must-win situations like in last year’s sale and the base price of the 700 MHz band is considered very high. The Mjunction platform will allow bidders to log in through three tiers of security and keep their identity masked through algorithms which shall only reveal the winner details after closure of the final round, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

The solution is designed to throw up the increased Licensed Service Area (LSA) prices for the next clock round without any manual intervention. The bidding members, according to it, will be given a set of private login ID and password by using which they can authenticate into the platform, only through a set of pre-approved public IP addresses, using preregistered Class III digital signature certificates.

Mjunction, in close coordination with the department, is working on pre-bid conference, clarification of NIA, mock auctions and other necessary criteria to conduct one of the biggest spectrum sales starting next month. The Mjunction platform will operate on SMRA (Simultaneous Multiple Rounds Ascending) e-auction process.

The e-auction solution will be duly tested, audited and certified by STQC, which will be conducting functional testing, penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, network security and application security, the company added.