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MUMBAI, Aug 1 (Reuters) - India plans to hold an auction ofairwaves for mobile phone network operators in February nextyear and aims to raise an initial $1.5 billion, according to adraft government plan seen by Reuters.
The Department of Telecommunications plans to sell radiowave frequencies in the 800, 900 and 1800 megahertz bands in theauction that is planned to open on Feb. 3, according to thememorandum.
The government is expecting to raise 93.55 billion rupees($1.53 billion) from the auction during the current fiscal yearending March 2015 although total revenues from the auction wouldbe much higher as carriers are required to pay up to a third ofthe winning price initially and the remainder in instalmentsover a number of years.
A spokesman for the Department of Telecommunicationsdeclined to comment.
Revenue from airwave sales is crucial to the government'sefforts to cut its budget deficit. An airwave auction this yearraised nearly $10 billion in total, with the government gettingabout $3 billion up front, far higher than what it had expected.
Leading carriers including Bharti Airtel Ltd,Vodafone Group Plc's local unit, Idea Cellular Ltd and Reliance Communications Ltd are requiredto bid in the auction to renew their permits in some serviceareas.($1=60.8300 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Nivedita Bhattacharjee;Editing by Greg Mahlich)
