Telenor Group wishes to clearly state that if the reserve price for 1800 Mhz spectrum is not reduced by atleast 50%, it will not be able to bid for Mumbai. We now look to the DoT and the Hon’ble Supreme Court for an intervention that ensures that the second round of auctions do not also fail and spectrum being a public resource is put to public use. Such an intervention is the only way to ensure a successful auction, which means wide participation, all spectrum sold, healthy bidding at possibly higher than reserve price. Almost 70% of available spectrum remained unsold in the first round of auctions. If the DoT and the Hon’ble Supreme Court do not intervene, we apprehend that this second round will be no different than the first.
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 The exit of competitors like Uninor from Mumbai is certain to have a significant negative impact on mobile phone users in the city. Pre-paid tariffs are expected to increase significantly – in our assessment by as much as 100%
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 The spokesperson from Telenor stated, “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”.
