An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Thursday delayed a decision on the Telecom Commission's recommendation on refarming (reallocating) of spectrum held by incumbent operators.

The Telecom Commission had recommended that GSM-based telecom operators should be asked to pay for spectrum they hold beyond 4.4 MHz at the auction-determined price, while CDMA operators should pay for holdings airwaves beyond 2.5 MHz.

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said the EGoM had decided to ask operators that hold airwaves beyond 6.2 Mhz to pay a one-time fee to be computed from 2008. It will earn an estimated of Rs 10,000 crore for the government.

The telecom minister said the EGoM deferred a decision on the refarming of spectrum due to lack of time. Refarming would mean all incumbent telecom operators will be asked to surrender all the 900 Mhz band spectrum they hold, and then place bids for the same airwaves at new, much higher prices.

Sibal said they intended to take a decision prior to the start of spectrum auction. Speaking on the topic, he said, "We intend to take a decision on the refarming issue prior to start of auction; hopefully, a week before the start of the auction."

The auctions for 2G spectrum is scheduled to start on 12th of November this year, while the auctions for the refarmed 900 Mhz airwaves will take place in 2013.