New Delhi:

The Centre on Tuesday announced it has begun the auction of spectrum worth Rs 96,238.45 crore for telecom services.

The total quantum of spectrum being auctioned is 10,522.35 MHz in various bands, valuing Rs 96,238.45 crore at reserve prices, said the Ministry of Communications.

The following spectrum bands will go up for bidding in the auction — 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz — that starts at 10 a.m.

The auction will see participation from three bidders: Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio Infocomm.

“To augment existing telecom services and maintain continuity of services, the government will hold the spectrum auction on Tuesday,” said the ministry.

The 1800 MHz spectrum band has been allocated Rs 21752.4 crore at reserve price, followed by the 800 MHz band at Rs 21,341.25 crore.

“This is in line with the government’s commitment to facilitate affordable, state-of-art high-quality telecom services to all the citizens,” the ministry added.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) initiated the spectrum process on March 8.

Spectrum will be assigned for a period of 20 years. Successful bidders will be allowed to make payments in 20 equal annual instalments, duly protecting the NPV at the interest rate of 8.65 per cent.

Spectrum acquired through this auction can be surrendered after a minimum period of 10 years. There will be no Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) for spectrum acquired in this auction, said the ministry.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The government will continue to auction telecom spectrum, and the administrative allocation route will be used sparingly, only in those cases where it is technically not feasible to do so or for areas that are strategic in nature, sources said.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is gearing up to hold the next round of spectrum auction on June 6 for eight spectrum bands (800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz, and 26 GHz) meant for mobile phone services at a base price of about Rs 96,317 crore.

The spectrum will be assigned for 20 years and successful bidders will be allowed to make payments in 20 equal annual installments in the coming mega auction.

Sources told Press Trust of India that the spectrum for mobile services will continue to be given through the auction process.

As enacted in the Telecom Act, 2023, only a very limited and narrowly defined cases, including spectrum for walkie-talkie for police organisations, radar for weather forecasting, radar and communication for ships, communication for space and satellite applications, communication and radar for the Army, Air Force and Navy and state-owned telecom corporation like BSNL, airwaves will be given on administrative basis, sources told news agency PTI.

Of the total allocations, these amount to a minuscule, just 5-7 per cent of the cases.

The government had on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking a modification of the 2012 order. The modification sought was to allow for administrative allocation in select cases where it is not technically feasible to use the auction route. However, for the majority of the spectrum, the auction will continue to be the mode of allocation.

The matter in the Supreme Court is basically an application filed (in the top court) following the due process before introducing the Telecom Bill in parliament, sources clarified.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)