The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) on Monday questioned the TRAI regarding its recommendation of Rs 11,485 crore per MHz for pan India airwaves for the next round of auctions, especially for the newly announced 700 Mhz band which is crucial to 4G adoption in the country, reports The Indian Express. A DoT official told the publication that there were ‘certain questions’ raised regarding the logic behind setting such a high reserve price for spectrum.The official explained that DoT considers a set of parameters before approving a reserve price for any spectrum band. However, in case of the 700 MHz band, the reserve price was set at four times more than that of the 1,800 MHz band’s discovered auction price. The auction of 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz has been planned to be held in July, added the official.TRAI’s reserve price are too high In January TRAI recommended (pdf) a base price of Rs 2,873 crore per MHz for the 1800 MHz frequency band (2G spectrum), which is 31% higher than base price the government fixed in the 2015 auction.It also stated in the report that the pricing of Rs 11, 485 crore for the 700 Mhz band is the highest reserve price fixed for any band since the auctions began in 2011, and could fetch the government Rs 5.36 lakh crore if frequency is sold at that rate.It is also worthy to note that last year’s spectrum auction fetched bids…
