DoT uncertain over excess spectrum

The decision to withdraw the proposal from the agenda of the meeting later this week assumes significance in the wake of Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh seeking Prime Minister's intervention on spectrum-related issues.    

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has proposed a marginal money of Rs 16 crore per MHz to be charged from the GSM mobile service providers for spectrum (radio frequency) held by them beyond the contracted limit of 6.2 MHz in metros.    

While the money is just Rs 3 crore for the category C circle.    

This has been strongly opposed by the new players as well as CDMA operators saying this would not only regularise the excess spectrum held by top GSM players but would also leave no scope for others to expand their operations in future.    

Moreover, the matter is subjudice as the petition filed by Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Communication is still pending in the telecom tribunal TDSAT.    

The CDMA operators had earlier demanded that excess spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz held by the GSM players be withdrawn or a suitable price be recovered from them.    

As per the original proposal of DoT, the department had proposed an annual fixed charge of up to Rs 290 crore per MHz of spectrum in the metros besides doubling the spectrum fee to 10 per cent of gross revenues every year.    

Going by the original proposal, the government would have got about Rs 6,000 crore annually while the latest proposal would fetch the government only Rs 1,250 crore resulting in a loss of over Rs 5,000 crore every year.