Saturday, January 3, 2009

FinMin seeks 100% hike in reserve price for 3G spectrum

Date : Jan-02-2009 10:25
On Thursday, the Finance Ministry asked the Department of Telecom to double the reserve price for pan-India 3G spectrum to Rs 4,040 crore.

The Ministry of Finance, in a note sent to Siddartha Behura, Telecom Secretary, said, “The reserve price may be increased from Rs 2,020 crore to Rs 4,040 crore for a pan-India allocation of two blocks of five MHz of 3G spectrum”.

However, the Finance Ministry has asked DoT to modify the note incorporating the revised prices before bringing it to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

On the other hand, the Finance Ministry has also asked to double the reserve price for wireless broadband services to Rs 2,000 crore for pan-India allocation.

DoT early this week had issued revised schedule for auctioning the 3G spectrum. However, the sources said that the Finance Ministry has also questioned the rationale of limiting the auction of only four slots of spectrum in each circle.

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