The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom, which is headed by finance minister P Chidambaram, has recommended that the base price of November auction for the 800 MHz spectrum used in CDMA services should be reduced by 30 per cent or 50 per cent for auctions this year.

Government officials have said that the union cabinet is expected to take a decision on the CDMA spectrum price soon and all the spectrum auctions will begin on 11 March this year.

The 800 MHz band is used for CDMA services and it found no buyer during the auctions held in November of 2012. There is much lesser demand for CDMA airwaves in the country while operators are struggling to improve service due to the limit supply of spectrum in GSM services in the country.

Experts say that the 800 MHz band is close to the GSM airwaves and thus it can be used by 2G telecom service providers to offer data services. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Idea Cellular have asked the telecom authorities to consider allocating unused CDMA spectrum for GSM services.

Telecommunication minister Kapil Sibal said that the EGoM has decided that the 800 MHz spectrum will take place in all telecom zones.