India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Friday confirmed 25 February as the start date for its latest spectrum auction, a process from which it hopes to raise as much as 648.4 billion rupees (€8.6 billion).
The government has published a notice inviting application (NIA) calling on potential bidders to signal their interest no later than 6 February. A final list of qualified applicants is due to be published on 20 February, which will be followed by a mock auction on 23-24 February. Bidding proper is scheduled to get underway the following day.
Once the dust settles, winning bidders will have 10 calendar days to pay up. Applicants that opt for deferred payment will need to pay 33% of the final bid amount in the case of 1800-MHz spectrum, and 25% in the case of 800-MHz and 900-MHz.
Licences will be valid for 20 years.
The volume of spectrum on the block amounts to 380.75 MHz. It consists of 103.75 MHz of 800-MHz spectrum covering all 22 telecom circles; 177.8 MHz of 900-MHz spectrum in 17 circles; and 99.2 MHz of 1800-MHz spectrum in 15 circles. The DoT also intends to auction frequencies in the 2.1-GHz band but has yet to provide further details.
The DoT has set a reserve price of INR36.46 billion (€480 million) per MHz for pan-India frequencies in the 800 MHz band. For pan-India 900-MHz spectrum excluding Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Jammu and Kashmir, the reserve is INR39.8 billion. Finally, a reserve of INR21.91 billion has been established for pan-India 1800-MHz spectrum excluding Maharashtra and West Bengal.
