Govt invites bids for agency to conduct e-auction of spectrum

Department of Telecom (DoT) has invited bids to select an agency to conduct e-auction of spectrum in various bands of telecom airwaves.

The department has issued a notice for Request of Proposal for the selection of an agency to conduct e-auction of spectrum on simultaneous multiple-round ascending auction (SMRA) pattern in the 22 telecom service areas (TSAs).

The technical and financial bids of the interested parties should reach the department by November 11, 2014.

DoT will shortly issue the guidelines for spectrum auction in 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz bands shortly.The interested parties also have to provide an Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of Rs 10 lakh along with their proposal.

On the auctioneer's fee, DoT said: "Bidders have to quote per service area price (single quote and payable per band, separately) for holding a successful auction."

The amount payable to the auctioneer on completion of a particular auction would be arrived at after multiplying the rate per service area with number of total service areas (counted separately for all bands) in which auction is successful, it added.

For more clarification on the bids for conducting e-auction, DoT will hold a pre-bid conference with interested parties on October 27, 2014.

The Department of Telecom is working on modalities for next round of spectrum auction for which it needs to appoint an agency that will design software and operate whole auction process which is conducted online.

The department selects auctioneer through tender process. Earlier auctions had provision of paying fixed fee of Rs 5 crore along with variable fee quoted by the auctioneer.

The 3G and BWA auctions in 2010, which jointly fetched government about Rs 1 lakh crore, were conducted by N M Rothschild & Sons. DoT shortlisted the Times Internet Ltd-led consortium for auctions in 2012 which was mainly operated by Ahmedabad based firm e-Procurement Technologies.

The Times Internet-led consortium did not demand any variable fee and worked only for a fixed fee of Rs 5 crore. The consortium operated November 2012 auction which fetched bids of about Rs 9,100 crore; March 2013 auction fetched about Rs 3,600 crore and February 2014 auctions fetched about Rs 62,162 crore.

November 2012 auction saw price increase from reserve rates only in Bihar service area, while in rest of the 21 circles, spectrum was purchased at base price only.

In March, all spectrum was purchased at reserve price as there was only one bidder - Sistema Shyam Teleservices.

Auction conducted in February 2014 saw huge rise in value of telecom radiowaves. Companies purchased spectrum at premium of about 100 per cent in some service areas.