EGoM to take final call Tuesday on spectrum pricing
June 4th, 2012 - 10:12 pm ICT by IANS
Mumbai, June 4 (IANS) An empowered group of ministers (EGoM) led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will meet Tuesday to take a final call on key issues of 2G spectrum auction such as pricing and refarming, officials said.
The EGoM would go through the analysis report of the Telecom Commission on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) proposals and their impact on tariffs, and the department of telecom’s own recommendations and take a final decision.
Meanwhile, the GSM operators said the EGoM should take into consideration all the information and views of different groups and analysts to arrive at a decision.
“Our major concern is the reserve pricing recommendation from the sector regulator, which would be a deathknell for the industry. Let the market dynamic decide what the spectrum price should be,” Rajan Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), told IANS.
TRAI had recommended, among other proposals, a reserve price of Rs.3,622 crore for 1 Mhz pan-India spectrum, which is around 10 times higher than the price at which 2G licences were allocated in 2008 under then Telecom Minister A. Raja.
The operators have warned of a 100 percent hike in tariffs if the proposals are accepted.
According to consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), telecom tariffs are expected to rise by 90 paise a minute in metros and 20-34 paise on an average across the country if the sector regulator’s recommendations on spectrum pricing are accepted.
- Reserve price of spectrum major concern: COAI - Jun 30, 2012
- EGoM to decide on spectrum pricing Thursday - Jun 20, 2012
- EGoM to take final call on pricing and refarming of spectrum - May 26, 2012
- 2G spectrum base price decision deferred till Friday (Lead) - Jul 18, 2012
- No decision on 2G pricing, EGoM favours refarming spectrum - Jun 05, 2012
- Telecom tariffs may rise by 90 paise in metros: Study - May 22, 2012
- Telecom Commission to meet Thursday on TRAI recommendations - May 23, 2012
- EGoM on telecom approves spectrum mortgaging (Lead) - Jul 12, 2012
- Telecom Commission to meet again Saturday on spectrum pricing - May 24, 2012
- EGoM to recommend spectrum price, but cabinet to take call - Jul 20, 2012
- DoT to meet operators on spectrum reserve price - Jul 13, 2012
- Telecom EGoM to recommend lower reserve price to cabinet for approval (Lead) - Jul 20, 2012
- GSM players to contest TRAI theory of minor tariff hike - May 07, 2012
- Pawar to head EGoM on spectrum - Jun 29, 2012
- EGoM on 2G spectrum deferred - Jun 21, 2012
Tags: cellular operators, coai, crore, deathknell, director general, final call, final decision, finance minister, gsm operators, mathews, operators association, pranab mukherjee, pricewaterhousecoopers, pwc, raja, spectrum auction, telecom commission, telecom regulatory authority, telecom regulatory authority of india, trai