India's Department of Telecom has set a deadline of 22 February for operators to apply for participating in the upcoming spectrum auction. The auction is set to start 11 March with frequencies in the 1800 and 900 MHz bands, and the auction of spectrum in the 800 MHz band will start two days after the first auction closes. The government earlier decided to sharply lower the reserve prices in the auction, in an attempt to encourage more bidders to participate, after it failed to sell all the licences in the previous auction in November. Operators, which are already facing new one-time levies on their existing spectrum holdings, have called for further price reductions in the upcoming auction. The auction will include frequencies for the countries biggest markets, Delhi and Mumbai, as well as spectrum needed to continue existing GSM services and roll-out 4G services.
