Pricing of 700 MHz band too high, says Sunil Mittal

A day after spectrum auction fetching the government just 12 per cent of the targetted money, Founder & Chairman of Bharti Enterprises Sunil Mittal on Friday said pricing of 700 MHz band was too high.

“It (700 MHz spectrum auction) was bound to get less response,” he told reporters on the sidelines of India Economic Summit, organised by World Economic Forum and Confederation of Indian Industry.

At a panel discussion at the event, he said unsold spectrum points to missed opportunity and expressed hope that the government will look into the pricing issue.

Spectrum auction fetched the government Rs 65,785 crore against the target of Rs 5.39 lakh crore.

None bid for 700 MHz spectrum.

However, Mittal said overall spectrum auction was a success.

He refuted that his company bid for lots of spectrum out of fear of Jio, pointing out that every company had a gap in the spectrum, so they bid to make up for that.