Indian Regulator Proposes Open Telecom Auction

India's telecommunications regulator proposed that the government open its auction of mobile-phone bandwidth, including frequencies that some current operators are required to surrender, to all companies.

The regulator also suggested a base auction price that is several times more than that at which India allotted 122 licenses and bandwidth to several companies in 2008. The Supreme Court of India in February ordered the cancellation of those licenses citing irregularities in their allotment. While some of the affected operators have decided to shut their operations, others, such as Norway's Telenor ASA and Russia's Sistema JSFC, have expressed interest in the auctions. The regulator's recommendations, if the government accepts them, would make the process tough for the companies that want to continue operations because competition could drive up prices. In 2010, the government set a base price of 35 billion rupees, or about $670 million, for a pan-India five-megahertz slot, under a plan to raise at least 350 billion rupees by auctioning third-generation bandwidth. It ended up raising 677.19 billion rupees after the auction went into several rounds.