Telcom Commission approves spectrum trading

The Telcom Commission (TC) has approved spectrum trading and had said it should be incorporated in the final documents for the next round of auction though it had asked DoT to issue guidelines after comprehensive recommendations from Trai.

The TC, an inter-ministerial panel, met on Thursday and had sought additional information and clarification on most of the key points recommended by Trai for third round of auctions.

According to the official, as per Trai recommendations, private entities should be allowed to sell spectrum which as of now was done by the government only.

The regulator had suggested that only those companies that participated in auction should be allowed to carry out spectrum trading.

Trai's recommendation was that only that spectrum should be allowed to be traded that had either been obtained through auction or on which the telecom service provider had paid the prescribed market value to the government.

Trai would need to revert to DoT in 15 days on the clarifications sought and the clarifications provided by it would be placed before next meeting of TC scheduled for 29 October.

The decision of TC would  then be placed before Empowered Group of Ministers for final decisions related to third round of auction which was expected to be conducted by January.

Meanwhile, Business Standard reports that the Planning Commission had fully endorsed the recommendations of Trai on spectrum pricing.

It added Trai's calculation of the base price for 900M Hz and 1,800 MHz was based on a robust assumption, in line with international practice and needed to be accepted by the Telecom Commission.

It also backed the regulator's view on imposition of a uniform 3 per cent spectrum user charge, as also allowing spectrum trading and not undertaking an auction of the 800 MHz band. The Planning Commission had also come out in support of the regulator's suggestion to permit spectrum trading.

According to the Planning Commission the Trai recommendation must be viewed as a package including covering spectrum trading, merger and acquisition (M&A) guidelines, sharing of spectrum, a flat regime for spectrum usage charge and a level playing field for rollout obligations for all service providers.