The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended a 48 per cent increase in the reserve price for spectrum to be auctioned in the 800 MHz band.

The regulatory body has proposed a reserve price of Rs 26.85 billion per MHz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band in comparison to Rs 18.2 billion in the previous round of spectrum auction held by the government in March 2013. In the last round of spectrum auction, only Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited participated in the auction and won spectrum at the reserve price in eight circles.

The spectrum in the 800 MHz band is currently being used by CDMA players. According to TRAI, the reserve price has been increased since the spectrum in the 800 MHz band can also be used by the operators to offer data services using 3G and 4G technologies.

Besides reserve price, the other key recommendations by TRAI for auctioning spectrum in the 800 MHz band include:

·Taking back the entire spectrum held by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited in the 800 MHz band.

·Allowing Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited to retain only one CDMA block in all the local service areas (LSAs) except in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and North-East LSAs, where it can retain both the blocks.

· The entire spectrum available with the Department of Telecommunications in the 800 MHz band to be put up for auction.

·At least one chunk of contiguous 5 MHz spectrum (i.e. four bands) should be made available for bidding before the auction. The band reassignment, if required, may be carried out amongst the existing operators using 800 MHz band to create at least four contiguous bands of spectrum.

·Spectrum in the 800 MHz band should be auctioned in a block size of 1.25 MHz.

·A new entrant which does not have any spectrum holding in the 800 MHz band must bid for a minimum of four blocks of spectrum. However, an existing operator with CDMA spectrum should be allowed to bid for a minimum 1 block of spectrum. New entrants must be assigned the earmarked contiguous blocks of spectrum only.