Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has written a letter to the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) chairman and union home minister P Chidambaram, opposing an EGoM move to reduce the reserve price of spectrum for auction and increase spectrum usage charge correspondingly such that government's revenues are not affected.

"It is submitted that any SUC which is higher than existing rates will not allow the government to move to a uniform rate regime as there will be no incentive for existing spectrum holders to "migrate" to a higher rate regime. Differential SUC for different quanta/bands of spectrum will give rise to arbitrage opportunities and also result in a regime that is impossible to monitor and enforce," said Rajan S Mathews, director general of COAI, in the letter.

COAI has said that the government should reduce overall reserve price. Telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) has recommended a reserve price of R18,000 cr for 5 Mhz of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band.