April date for spectrum auction

rakash defended the high reserve price on the grounds the winning bidders will stagger the payment. "It is not that the entire amount has to be paid upfront. So, it doesn't appear to be that high."Trai had initially given recommendation for spectrum valued at Rs 4.9 lakh crore. The telecom department has now included spectrum that is set to expire and are with Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel (eight circles each) and Vodafone and Idea Cellular (four circles each).The high reserve prices are expected to come as a setback to Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which had deemed them as too expensive.The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said the reserve price was too high, given the sector is under severe financial stress. "With prices 4 to 6 times higher than that of similar spectrum sold recently in several countries, telecom service providers will find it very difficult to raise funds to participate in the auctions," Rajan S. Mathew, director-general of the COAI, said."The quantum of spectrum in the 5G band being put up for auction will be only 175 MHz (per circle), woefully inadequate for operators to roll out robust networks and services," he said. Out of the 8,300 Mhz of airwaves across 22 circles, 6050 Mhz are allocated to high-speed 5G. The telecom department on Friday said it would auction 8,305 Mhz of spectrum at an aggregate reserve price of Rs 5.22 lakh crore in March-April."The Digital Communication Commission (DCC) has approved the recommendation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. We are hopeful that auction shall be conducted in March-April," telecom secretary Anshu Prakash told reporters here. DCC is the apex decision making body of the telecom department."We are going to auction 8,305 megahertz, this is spectrum which is already available or which will become available in the next 18 months or so. The reserve price calculated comes to about Rs 5, 22,850 crore," he said.The DCC did not change the reserve prices proposed by Trai but altered the terms of upfront payment. DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: The Telegraphhttps://disqus.com/by/potygfebswao/