Govt plans 2G spectrum to stand-alone winners at Rs 1,658 cr

The government is mulling whether the 2G spectrum can be offered to stand-alone winners of 3G bidders at the price of Rs 1,658 crore for pan India operations.

The government is mulling whether the 2G spectrum can be offered to stand-alone winners of 3G bidders at the price of Rs 1,658 crore for pan India operations — the amount charged from new players last year.

According to sources close to the development,the Department of Telecom (DoT) would issue a clarification with regard to the price of 2G spectrum for stand-alone winners and also their priority vis-a-vis over 300 applications pending with the department.

Since any entity,which holds Unified Acess Service License (UASL) or previous experience of running 3G services is eligible for participating in the forthcoming auction of 3G spectrum scheduled from Juanuary 14 next year,these issues needed to be clarified immediately.

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This means foreign operators would also become eligible for the 3G services without having 2G spectrum,which would be essential to run mobile services.

“In this scenario,stand-alone 3G auction winners of various circles would be applicants/holders of UASL licences after the completion of auction. Therefore,the situation would require that the clarity may be available on the these issues at this stage,” sources added.

A senior official said that since telecom regulator TRAI is also expected to give recommendations on various crucial matters soon,a lot of issues would be clarified.

Sources said that in the absence of clarity on these issues,potential bidders ,especially foreign players,may not come forward to participate in the auction process and may result in lacklustre response.

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