Spectrum auction deferred to March 4

NEW DELHI: India's Department of Telecom (DoT) has said that the auction for 2G and 3G telecom spectrum will be deferred to March 4 from February 25.

Earlier, DoT had announced that the spectrum auction will start from February 25 for 2G and 3G networks.

The last date for submission of applications is February 6, according to the timeline mentioned in the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA).

"The reserve price approved is Rs 3,646 crore pan-India per MHZ in 800 MHz, Rs.3,980 crore for 900 MHz band pan India excluding Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Jammu and Kashmir; Rs 2,191 crore pan India (excluding Maharashtra and West Bengal) in 1800 MHz band," an official statement said.

The details regarding auction of spectrum in 2100 MHz will be issued later, the NIA said. The reserve price for 2,100 MHz is yet to be announced, it said.

The government is likely to rake in Rs 64,840 crore (excluding 2100 MHz spectrum) from the auctions, of which Rs 16,000 crore is expected to be realized in the current financial year (2014-15).

The next round of auctions for spectrum is compulsory for mobile operators - Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Reliance Communication - as some of their licences are set to expire in 2015-16.

The Narendra Modi government has already finalized mjunction services, a Kolkata-based firm, for conducting the spectrum auction.