NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended fresh reserve prices per MHz for auction of 800 MHz spectrum in the light of current data trends and other relevant factors since the valuation exercise was carried out in February 2014.

Accordingly, the recommended reserve price per MHz in the metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata is Rs 494 crore, Rs 352 crore, and Rs 117 crore, respectively.

The reserve price for the north-east is Rs 11 crore and for Jammu and Kashmir it is Rs 28 crore per MHz.

The authority has once again reiterated its recommendation that the entire available spectrum with the DoT in the 800 MHz band should be put to auction.

As the PSUs (MTNL/BSNL) are not using the spectrum in the 800 MHz band, the authority has reiterated its recommendations that the DoT should take back from MTNL its entire spectrum holding in the 800MHz band. The BSNL should be allowed to retain only one CDMA carrier in all the LSAs except in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and North-East LSAs, where it can retain both the carriers. The DoT should take back other carriers assigned to BSNL in the 800 MHz band."

The chances of participation by a prospective new bidder will be more if it is offered contiguous 5 MHz of spectrum. It would make it feasible to deploy any technology. Therefore, the authority has reiterated its recommendations that "at least one chunk  of contiguous  5 MHz spectrum (i.e. 4  carriers)  should  be  carved  out  before  the  auction.  New 'entrants must be assigned the earmarked  contiguous  carriers."