High 2G reserve price; Telenor set to exit Mumbai

BANGALORE, INDIA: Telenor Group announced that if the reserve price for 1800 Mhz spectrum is not reduced by atleast 50 per cent, it will not bid for Mumbai circle. This will force the telecom service provider to exit from Mumbai.

An official statement from the company states that it is awaiting DoT and the Supreme Court to intervene into the issue in order to ensure that the second round of auctions do not fail like the first round, where almost 70 per cent of available spectrum remained unsold.

The statement adds that pre-paid tariffs are expected to increase significantly by as much as 100 per cent.

"We are also concerned by the differential treatment between 800 MHz CDMA spectrum and 1800 MHz GSM spectrum. Considering that an unrealistic reserve price caused auctions to fail both of these bands in these circles, it is difficult to understand why the right decision of 50% reduction is being taken only for CDMA operators," the statement adds.