In a breather to telecom firms seeking to participate in spectrum auction, a DoT panel studying Trai's proposals has said two slots of radio-waves can be put up for bidding irrespective of conditions attached by the regulator, according to sources.

Telecom operators, mainly Norwegian firm Telenor, have approached senior leaders to increase the number of spectrum slots for auction as a single slot may lead to sky-high in the auction process which may in turn lead to rise in rates of telecom services.

The DoT panel is also learnt to have retained Trai's old reserve price of about Rs 36,000 crore for 800 Mhz spectrum band, used for CDMA services.

In India, 1800 Mhz and 900 Mhz band are used to deliver 2G services using GSM technology and 800 Mhz band by utilising CDMA technology.

The panel's proposal comes against recommendation of Trai which earlier proposed only one slot of 5 Mhz spectrum in 1800 Mhz band auction and later recommended additional slot for auction with condition that minimum four bidders should participate for auction of each slot.

Explaining the rationale behind increasing the number of slots to two, the panel is believed to have said that the earliest occassion for refarming will be after two years from now which should be enouigh period to get the balance of the spectrum in the 1800 Mhz band vacated by Defence.

Trai in its clarification to DoT has reduced the reserve price for 800 Mhz from two times to 1.3 times the price of 1800 Mhz band but kept the price of 900 Mhz spectrum at double price of 1800 Mhz band.