Trai English news | Trai, Latest News & Live Updates in English | English News (Latest English News) at Lokmattimes.com

"We will hold the meeting sometime next month. TRAI has given the recommendations on auction prices, the DCC will consider it and then we will have to take a cabinet approval. It will be premature for me to say what will be the decision," Prakash said.The secretary said the decision will have to be taken quickly over this. "We're planning to do the auctions by December end or January. If we have to hold the spectrum auction by December-January, then we will have to take a call in the interim period," Prakash said, at the sidelines of a government event along with FICCI.On the issue of Chinese telecom vendor Huawei's participation in the Indian telecom sector given recurrent questions over the security issues, Prakash said any decision on Huawei will have to be in the best interest of the country. Huawei has been seeking clarity from the government on participation in 5G trials and its future partnerships for equipments deployment in India in partnership with the service providers.On the issue of revival of state run telcos - BSNL and MTNL, the telecom secretary said that the DoT is, "working on a revival package," and "actively considering how best to address the issue".The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had first sent its suggestions on 5G, in August last year. TRAI has priced the 3,300-3,600 MHz band, expected to be the primary band for 5G services, at Rs 492 crore per megahertz.Bharti Airtel has said these prices are exorbitant and it would not participate in any auction at these prices. In South Korea, the same band was priced at roughly Rs 131 crore per megahertz in auctions held in June last year.TRAI had recommended auction of about 8,644 MHz of telecom frequencies, including those for 5G services, at an estimated total base price of Rs 4.9 lakh crore.The decision on spectrum prices including that of 5G airwaves which will be sold for the first time has been a debatable issue for the industry.The mobile industry has the grievance that the TRAI recommended prices are high and untenable and with the telcos' tough financial situations and huge losses, they cannot bid at the TRAI recommended prices. The telcos have petitioned the DoT to reduce the reserve prices for the auction specially the 5G spectrum base price.Sensing the urgency, the DoT had sent the proposals back to TRAI to reconsider the base prices which the regulator turned down and stuck to its stand on original decision. DoT then set up an internal panel to look at the Trai auction price proposals which is yet to submit its report.( With inputs from IANS )

TraiFOLLOW

Trai, Latest News

Reliance Jio mobile services are no longer completely free as the company in an unexpected decision announced recently that it would charge 6 paise/minute from its customers for outgoing calls to other network operators to recover the Interconnect Us ...

Reliance Jio has alleged incumbents, including state-run BSNL, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, have fraudulently masquerading wireline numbers as mobile numbers for receiving terminating charges as mobile numbers and not paying relevant charges in w ...

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi took a jibe at Reliance Jio on Thursday after the mobile data network declared that calls made to other mobile operators would be charged at 6 paise per minute at the prevailing interconnect usage charge (IUC), b ...

With Reliance Jio announcing 6 paise per minute charge for voice calls to rival networks, Vodafone Idea on Wednesday termed the announcement "an action of undue haste" and Airtel termed the Mukesh Ambani-owned company's move a forced tactics to reduc ...

The decision of Reliance Jio to charge voice calls to rival networks at 6 paise a minute due to a pending timeline over inter-connect charge phase-out is a positive development for the sector but there is unlikely to be any upward pressure on voice t ...

On account of taking a hit of Rs 13,500 crore due to network connection charges, or interconnect usage charges (IUC), Reliance Jio on Wednesday said it will charge customers 6 paise per minute for voice calls made to rival networks till IUC charges a ...

The scope of telecom infrastructure providers (IP) in the country should be enhanced to include provisioning of common sharable active infrastructure to all concerned entities, the Broadband India Forum (BIF) said on Monday. ...

The Digital Communications Commission (DCC), the inter-ministerial and highest decision making body of Telecom Ministry will take a call in its meeting next month on the crucial reserve prices of the spectrum for the upcoming auction which is likely ...