Recommendations aimed at liberalising spectrum: Trai

New Delhi: Justifying the prices set for spectrum allocation, Trai Chairman J S Sarma today said the recommendations are aimed at liberalising spectrum and enabling operators to take up any technology.

"We have liberalised the spectrum, therefore it is capable of taking up any technology and you are not constrained by GSM technology. So, that is the reason why we have done that," Sarma told reporters here.

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Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended Rs 3,622.18 crore per Mhz for 1800 Mhz. The steep hike has set off fears of a hike in mobile phone tariffs which

are at present among the cheapest in the world.

The regulator, whose recommendations are not binding on the government, has valued 2G spectrum at about Rs 7 lakh crore, nearly seven times more than Rs 1.04 lakh crore that

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the government had received through auction of 3G spectrum in 2010.

The price set is around 10 times more than what companies such as Unitech Wireless, Swan Telecom and Shyam Telecom had paid for at least 4.4 MHz of all-India spectrum in 2008.

A pan-India spectrum in 1800 MHz band will cost Rs 18,000 crore. This is around five times the base price of Rs 3,500 crore for 3G spectrum auction.

On participation of operators, who are set to lose their licence on 2 June following the Supreme Court order, Sarma said the auction would be open to all.

"...people who have lost their licences can participate, anybody can participate. This auction is open to the entire world. What happens to those 122 licence that is entirely a

different question. It has nothing to do with spectrum auction," he said.

PTI