SC notices to RCom, TTSL on microwave spectrum royalty

The Supreme Court today issued notices to Reliance Communications (RCom), Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and the lobby group of CDMA operations, AUPSI, in a case of royalty for microwave spectrum.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia issued notices to RCom and TTSL asking them to file their affidavits in the case on a petition by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) challenging telecom tribunal TDSAT's order.

The case on whether the royalty for microwave spectrum should be from the date of earmarking of spectrum or the date of issue of license fee.

In an order on February 5, 2009, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate (TDSAT) had held that spectrum charges would be collected by the DoT from CDMA players from date of issue of microwave spectrum.

The tribunal had further said that if the spectrum was allotted to the CDMA operators in the first half of a quarter, the operators would have license fee for the entire quarter. However, if it was alloted in the second half of the quarter, then the liability was to be on pro rata basis.

The tribunal had also held that spectrum for microwave would also include Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS).

DoT, which challenged this order, submitted before the Supreme Court that the "tribunal was wrong and its order was liable to be set aside" because according to its licence agreement with the operators, operators have to pay royalty in accordance with various factors such as frequency, hop and link length, area of operation, etc.

It further submitted that "for efficient and optimal use of spectrum", the government had decided to levy the spectrum charges from the operators from date of earmarking of the frequency from March 2005.

The Bench, which also consisted Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar, directed Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) and the operators to file their reply within two weeks.