The third round of spectrum auction

started today from which the government expects to garner at least 11,300 crore rupees.

The Department of Telecom has put on block around 385 MHz of radiowaves in the 1800 MHz band, and 46 MHz in the 900 MHz band.

The government has to conduct this third round of spectrum auction following a Supreme Court order in 2G case directing that all the radiowaves freed from the cancellation of 122
licences in February 2012 should be auctioned.

Besides, 900 Mhz has to be auctioned as some of the

radiowaves in this band are held under old telecom licences

which will start expiring from November 2014.

The government has set a target of Rs 40,874.50 crore for

this fiscal from spectrum, including the auction amount,
one-time spectrum charge and annual regular licence fee.