Business
Ambanis, six others apply for spectrum auction
New Delhi, Feb 16
Eight telecom operators,
including Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm, have submitted
applications to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction starting
March 4. Mukesh's brother Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications has
also applied.
The other operators are Bharti Airtel, Vodafone
India, Tata Teleservices, Uninor, Idea Cellular and Aircel, according to
an official source.
Monday (Feb 16) was the last date of submission of applications.
However,
Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL), which provides services under
the brand name MTS, announced that it would not participate in the
auction. It was a potential buyer of the CDMA spectrum.
"Sistema
Shyam TeleServices Ltd has consistently maintained that the pricing of
800 MHz spectrum at Rs.3,646 crore per MHz, is way out of line and does
not merit a strong business case for buying additional spectrum. The
company continues to maintain that such pricing does not take into
account the realities of the prevailing ecosystem within the 800 MHz
band," the company said in a statement.
The SSTL has also
approached the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Board (TDSAT)
seeking direction against the department of telecommunications for
reassignment/rearrangement of the blocks/frequencies of liberalized
spectrum allotted to SSTL during the auction held in March, 2013 in 8
circles for its CDMA services.
"SSTL has contended that the terms
and conditions of the auction during March 2013 permitted rearrangement
of frequencies of liberalized spectrum with the other operators without
any additional charge.
"However, since SSTL was the sole bidder
during the said auction and there is no other successful operator for
rearrangement of frequencies, it is incumbent upon DoT to
rearrange/reassign the frequency to make the spectrum allotted to SSTL
contiguous," the company added.
The other telecom operators who are not participating in the auction are Videocon Telecom and state-owned BSNL and MTNL.
The
total spectrum put to auction is 103.75 MHz in 800 MHz band, 177.8 MHz
in 900 MHz band and 99.2 MHz in 1,800 MHz band - a total of 380.75 MHz
in 800, 900 and 1,800 MHz.
The government will also put on sale 5 MHz in the 2,100 MHz band, which is used for 3G services in 17 out of 22 telecom areas.
The
reserve price approved is Rs.3,646 crore pan-India per MhZ in 800 MHz,
Rs.3,980 crore for 900 MHz band pan-India; and Rs.2,191 crore pan-India
in 1,800 MHz band.
The government also approved a reserve price of Rs.3,705 crore per megahertz for third generation services.
According to reports, the government expects to mop up Rs.75,000-Rs.100,000 crore from the auction.
In
December 2015, seven licences each of Idea Cellular and Reliance
Communications, four licences of Bharti Airtel and six licences of
Vodafone will complete their 20-year term after which they have to be
renewed.
In total, there are 29 licences in 18 service areas which expiring in 2015-16.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has selected Kolkata-based mjunction services for conducting the upcoming spectrum auction.