The Empowered Group of Ministers, EGoM on Telecom has approved hiking the reserve price by 25 per cent for the next round of auction of the mobile phone spectrum.

The group, headed by Defence Minister AK Antony, agreed with the recommendations of the Telecom Commission to better the reserve or base price, suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, for the auction of spectrum in the 1800 and 900 Mega hertz bands used by GSM operators.

After the meeting, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters in New Delhi that the Ministerial group has accepted the reserve price recommendations of the Telecom Commission in this regard.