MUMBAI: Idea Cellular’s chief has said that India is moving to an era of spectrum oversupply, contrasting the telecom industry’s long-standing stance on the issue.The telecom regulator has suggested that the government may auction some 2,142 MHz of spectrum across the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz bands in July, which would be the highest ever quantity put up for sale."The quantum that is about to be released gives every operator the chance to buy on need basis," Idea’s managing director Himanshu Kapania told ET in an interview. He said the spectrum sharing and trading rules give operators an option to augment their airwaves on a need basis as well.The quantum and spread, Kapania said, will be more than sufficient for operators not to compete while bidding and, therefore, buy it at floor price of the auction.Idea, India’s No. 3 telecom carrier, was to buy airwaves in the 1800MHz (4G) band from Videocon Telecom in two service areas at a significant premium to recent winning bid levels, but the deal was recently scrapped.Of the total, 770 MHz is from the 700 MHz band (4G), which most operators don’t want auctioned, citing lack of an ecosystem. This stand was recently questioned by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai ) chairman RS Sharma, who said these same carriers had pointed to spectrum scarcity as a major reason for poor quality of services.India’s telcos, however, have consistently blamed lack of spectrum for the worsening quality of services, pointing out that the quantum of spectrum held by Indian carriers is the lowest in the world.On the company’s 4G plans, Kapania said Idea was mirroring its 3G strategy to launch 4G in places where competing operators haven’t launched. "It worked for us. If you see now, out of the 575 towns where we have launched, there are 400 towns where Idea 4G is first," he said.Idea has launched 4G services in 10 service areas, of which eight do not overlap with Vodafone India, which is doing similar launches in the 1800 MHz band.About 6 per cent of the population covered under Idea’s 4G deployment now have mobile instruments that can use the service, Kapania said.The company is expanding its business in three directions, the first is digital services. It is creating technology and a platform for applications and content. The second is its mobile wallet and payments bank, which the company will launch in the upcoming financial year, Kapania said.Although Kapania hinted at a partnership with Aditya Birla Financial Services for the payments bank, he did not specify if there were others who would partner it in the move. "We are still working through the licence conditions to get the final licence from RBI (Reserve Bank of India)," he said.The payments bank, when ready, will expand the range of products Idea can bring to its customers and ultimately improve loyalty and increase spending on the network, he said.The third is a fixed-line service that Idea plans to bring to customers, but only at the rate at which it needs to expand its cabled network to sustain traffic on its mobile operations. The company started a pilot for it in Pune.