Spectrum auction from Sept 29, govt targets Rs 5.56 lakh crore

“The auctions are proposed to be held on September 29. This is in line with what we’ve been saying that the auctions are on track for being held in September,” Deepak said, adding that the pre-bid conference is proposed to be held on August 13.

“The various elements of the NIA will be discussed in detail and the inter-ministerial committee, to supervise the auction, will interact with the bidders, experts, seek their comments, provide clarifications etc as desired on various articles and sections of the NIA,” Deepak said.

Telecom industry body Cellular Operators Association of India’s (COAI) director general Rajan S Mathews told The Indian Express that the overall bidding levels might not exceed previous auctions in terms of percentage increase over the base price. Mathews said: “We think there will be very good demand in the 1800 MHz band, some demand for 2100 MHz and 2300 MHz bands, next to no demand for 700 MHz with few circles being picked up, and next to no demand for 2500 MHz band.” The companies winning any spectrum in these auctions will have an option of making payment either full upfront or through deferred means.

In case of deferred payment option, the quantum of upfront payment in case of over 1 GHz band — 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz — will be 50 per cent of the bid amount compared with 33 per cent upfront payment condition in 2015’s spectrum auction, Deepak said. However, he added that in case of sub-1 GHz bands – 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 900 MHz, the upfront payment has been kept same at 25 per cent of the bid amount.

In the NIA, Deepak said, the DoT has also introduced some new aspects for the benefit of telecom operators, which were not included in the conditions of previous auctions. The rollout obligation, he said, would be considered complete if district headquarters and block headquarters are covered by use of any technology in any band.

“If a district headquarter is covered through one technology, it does not have to be done by other technology. Also as far as checking the rollout obligations is concerned, 90 per cent self-certification will be permitted, and only 10 per cent verification will be made by the term cell,” he added

Further, the DoT has also streamlined the frequency allocation process to provide the maximum quantity of contiguous spectrum. “If you’re going to rollout data services and LTE, you’re not going to be able to do it without contiguous spectrum. That is the base line requirement for rolling out data services. So the fact that contiguous spectrum is being offered is a big plus,” Mathews of COAI said.