DoT makes prior experience a must for 3G spectrum

The government today amended the 3G telecom policy to allow only those having a licence or an experience of running such a service to apply for spectrum for these services. It also changed the norms for levying the annual spectrum fee.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has said that any party which holds a Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) or a Cellular Mobile Telecom Service Licence or who has previous experience of running these services can bid for spectrum.

The DoT has already started the process of appointing an agency to auction 3G spectrum. The agency will be in place by September 30. For those with experience, the new norms mandate that they give an undertaking that they will get a UASL according to the DoT’s guidelines. This means that non-licence holders for 3G spectrum would have to pay Rs 1,651 crore as pan-India fee.

The DoT has also amended the norms for annual spectrum charges. Now, the companies will have to pay 1 per cent of the “incremental revenue due to 3G services” after a period of one year. The method for this shall be notified separately.

In the case of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) services, the DoT has introduced for allocation a new frequency band of 2.3 GHz band in addition to the previously notified 2.5 GHz band.

It has also changed the rollout obligations for BWA services and removed the clause of covering specific areas at the end of two years from the spectrum allocation date and retained only the five-year periodicity for fulfilling the obligations.