Ashwini Vaishnaw hails cabinet's annual spectrum auction calendar decision as major reform

NEW DELHI: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday hailed the union cabinet's decision on spectrum auction calendar for mobile phone services in eight bands, and termed it a 'major reform'.

Taking to 'X', Vaishnaw wrote, "Annual spectrum auction calendar is a major reform. Now telecom service providers will get opportunity to buy spectrum regularly in a transparent way."

Earlier in February, the union cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the proposal to conduct a spectrum auction for mobile phone services in eight bands, including 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz, and 26 GHz.

Through the auction, proposed by the Ministry of Telecommunications, spectrum would be assigned to successful bidders for providing telecom services.

The spectrum will be offered for a 20-year validity period; while the base price has been set at Rs 96,317.65 crore.

The last spectrum auction was held in July 2022, through which the government earned a total of Rs. 1,50,173 crores, the highest-ever auction revenue proceeds received from a single auction.