After the Department of Telecommunication questioned The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) regarding its high reserve prices, the TRAI recently issued some recommendations (pdf) on spectrum pricing, allocation, and charges. Accordingly, the TRAI has offered an alternative payment structure to reduce any financial burden for 700 Mhz. Experts believe that the 700 Mhz is crucial for the roll out of 4G services by telecom operators. For the upcoming auctions, telcos could first pay 10% of the bid amount; the balance 90% could be paid over 18 years with 18 equal annual installments, along with interest. The telecom regulator has upheld the it’s pricing of Rs 11,845 crore for a single unit of the 700MHz band While questioning the TRAI, DoT said that it 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, and that no clarifications were given regarding the high pricing, 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. Spectrum too expensive It's worth noting that Gopal Vittal, Airtel India CEO had said that the pricing for 700 Mhz was too expensive. "We believe that the price that has been set or proposed for 700 MHz just makes it very, very expensive for us to buy any of that spectrum, so…
