India's telecom ministry has delayed the nation's planned 2G and 3G spectrum auction until March 4.
The ministry has accordingly extended the deadline for submissions by 10 days until February 16, NDTVreported.
The government will be auctioning 381.25MHz of spectrum, including 103.75MHz in the 800-MHz band, 177.8MHz in 900-MHz and 99.2MHz in 1800-MHz.
The reserve prices for spectrum in the 800-MHz, 900-MHz and 1800-MHz bands will be 36.46 billion rupees ($594.39 million), 39.80 billion rupees and 21.91 billion rupees per MHz respectively.
Also on the block will be a single 5MHz allocation of 2,10-MHz spectrum. The government has set a reserve price of 37.05 billion rupees per MHz – slightly below the original planned reserve price of 38.99 billion rupees, but still well above the recommendations of regulator Trai and the GSMA.
Combined, the government expects to raise around 648.4 billion rupees from the auction of spectrum in the four bands.
Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone will all need to use the auction to reaquire spectrum, as various operating licenses held by the companies are due to expire in December.