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New Delhi, Nov. 5: The upcoming auction of CDMA spectrum may be cancelled with the withdrawal of both the bidders — Tata Teleservices and Videocon — from the race.
While there is no official confirmation from the companies, sources said “there are no bidders for the CDMA spectrum”.
The department of telecom (DoT) will issue the final list of bidders tomorrow.
According to DoT officials, a meeting will be held soon to decide on the CDMA auctions.
The government had set the base price for spectrum in the 800MHz band at Rs 18,000 crore.
If the auction of CDMA spectrum is cancelled, the government may suffer a revenue loss of around Rs 7,000 crore. While Tata Teleservices had deposited Rs 22.5 crore as earnest money, Videocon had put in Rs 220 crore.
Russian player Sistema Shyam, which offers only CDMA services, had earlier clarified that it was waiting for a decision on its curative petition filed in the Supreme Court to overturn the cancellation of its licences and was not keen to participate in the auction.
Industry experts said the high base price and preference for GSM technology might have prompted the operators to rethink about bidding.
Tata Teleservices had applied to bid for Assam, the Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir.
“Most of the CDMA players have got dual technology licences and have concentrated on GSM technology considering customer preference. GSM connections are preferred because customers can move to a new handset simply by removing the SIM card, an option not available in CDMA handsets where the SIM is locked to the phone,” said Hemant Joshi, telecom expert at consultancy firm Deloitte India.
Last week, V.N.Dhoot-controlled Videocon withdrew its bid for 10 circles in the 800MHz band.
In the GSM segment, there are five players in the race. Airtel, Vodafone, Videocon, Idea Cellular and Telenor have applied to take part in the auction.
The auction of spectrum in the 1800MHz GSM band is expected to begin on November 12. CDMA auctions were scheduled to start two days after the GSM auction was over.
