The triennial exercise will take place for two hours and fifteen minutes during the day, dusk and night, he said.
But says more than 5 MHz can be auctioned in 9 circles
The government on Wednesday said it will not allocate any spectrum to existing operators, license holders and new applicants till a scientific evaluation was done by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC)."There is scarcity of spectrum and number of applicants are much more than actually can be accommodated... Applications must be synchronised by a legal process... We have referred the matter to Law Ministry to get Solicitor General's views on the matter," Telecom Minister A Ra
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Wednesday made a fresh round of attack on Union IT and Communication Minister A Raja for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam, saying the people should send telegrams demanding his immediate expulsion from the cabinet to the President.
Also looks at creating a level-playing field for GSM and CDMA players.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has recommended levying a one-time fee on existing mobile operators for spectrum they may hold in excess of 6.2 Mhz limit to garner at least Rs 22,640 crore.
The auctions for spectrum in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands came to an end on Thursday after 10 days of aggressive bidding by the country's major telecom operators.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta took note of the submissions of lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGOs 'Common Cause' and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, that the plea needed to be listed for hearing at the earliest.
The minister said that as committed earlier, the 3G spectrum would be distributed to all successful bidders on September 1 for launching services on commercial basis.
New Delhi is also set to top its target of raising at least $13 billion.
Meanwhile, on the contentious issue of roaming pact among leading service providers to offer 3G mobile services, the company seems to have hardened its stand by stating that they are ready to return the 3G spectrum to the Government and will take back the money if the roaming pact is not allowed.
Revenue collections relating to spectrum charges is Rs 3,015 crore in 2007-08 while it was Rs 2090 crore (Rs 20.9 billion) in 2006-07, Minister of State for IT and Communications Jyotirditya Scindia told Lok Sabha in a written reply. The sector has now 134 private licensees offering mobile services with a user base of 20.84 crore (Rs 208.4 million) till February 2008 with a total investment of Rs 95,000 crore (Rs 950 billion).
The government has set a total revenue target of Rs 40,874.5 crore (Rs 408.74 billion) this fiscal from spectrum, including auction amount, one-time spectrum charge and annual regular licence fee.
The department of telecommunication had earlier said a CDMA operator had written a letter to the government seeking auction of additional spectrum against the current subscriber-led allocation.
Tribunal Chairman Justice Arun Kumar adjourned the hearing after Solicitor General Goolam E Vahanvati, appearing for the Centre, told the tribunal that "there will be no allocation of spectrum to any player".
Adani Data Networks said it plans to create a private 5G network for its operations. However, it acquired the spectrum in the last 5G auction alongside three telecom companies. Subsequently, it was granted a unified licence for access services, which enables it to provide telecom services in the country.
'In life insurance, it is about creating distribution capacity and solutions for customers. We are constantly working on that.'
They will take call on the number of telecom circles in which spectrum to be auctioned.
Videocon starts race, says will bid in eight circles, expects 5-MHz spectrum to go for Rs 20,000 crore
Collectively, these companies spent Rs 628 crore (Rs 6.28 billion) on political contributions in the past five years, according to their annual reports.
As Election 2024 hurtles towards result day in a medley of mangalsutra, mujra, mutton, machli and other barbs, these may sound like character names from Hindi comics of yore. Instead, these are the mocking, sometimes vicious monikers given by political rivals to each other.
Both the Houses of Parliament adjourned amid opposition demands for resignation of Telecom Minister A Raja for his alleged involvement in the reported scam in allocation of 2G spectrum on Monday.
The department of telecommunication is expecting defence ministry to soon vacate the spectrum for mobile services, including 3G, as discussions with the armed forces are in final stages, a senior ministry official said on Wednesday.
Operators continued aggressive bidding in 900 MHz band
The Department of Telecom has asked the Group of Ministers on telecom spectrum to direct the Ministry of Defence to immediately release 20 Mhz spectrum in the 1,800 Mhz band for mobile phone operators.
In this regard, Pitroda noted the 3G auction in the country last year was transparent and there were no complications whatsoever in the bidding process.
The committee had recommended a complete junking of the existing subscriber-based criterion for additional spectrum allocation and wanted that spectrum beyond 4.4 Mhz should be auctioned.
Led by Ola Electric, which registered an industry record of 53,186 vehicles in March, electric two-wheeler (e2W) penetration hit a record at 8.91 per cent - the highest ever for a month (based on Vahan data).
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to indicate the formula used in international markets to fix the ratio between the reserve and the discovered prices of 2G telecom spectrum. Trai has assumed that the base price should be 80 per cent of that of the auction discovered price which is much higher than the internatioanl norm of 50 per cent.
An apex body of psychiatrists in India has said members of the LGBTQA community should be treated like all citizens of the country and have access to marriage, adoption, education, employment, property rights and healthcare.
In a move that could pave the way for open auction of the 2G spectrum released from 122 cancelled operators, a draft Cabinet note prepared by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has recommended the spectrum price be discovered through an auction involving "existing players and new parties".
The details of the BWA auction winners are still awaited from the Department of Telecom.
It is pertinent to mention that the ministry of defence had agreed to vacate the spectrum only during middle of this year.
The telecom ministry has referred the matter of number of 3G spectrum slots in each circle to the Finance Ministry.
Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura is learnt to have made a request to the Prime Minister's Office to convene a meeting that will include PMO, DoT, telecom regulator TRAI and finance secretary to resolve the controversy over spectrum allocation and pricing. He said the department is in dialogue with the ministry of finance regarding certain issues relating to guidelines for auction of 3G spectrum and pricing of 2G spectrum.
The Delhi high court on Thursday refrained from stopping the spectrum allocation exercise initiated by the government, but said the distribution of frequency depends on the final outcome of the petition filed by GSM operators grouping COAI.
Amid reports of a possible delay in release of spectrum by the defence forces, DoT is going ahead with regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations on auctioning the airwaves with a reserve base price.
The government on Tuesday exuded confidence that revenues from sale of spectrum for 3G telephony and broadband may touch Rs 50,000-55,000 crore (Rs 500-550 billion), beating the budget estimates of Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion).
