Telcos will have to pay for spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz: Raja

Clearing the air on the contentious issue of charging the incumbent telcos for excess spectrum, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, A Raja today said that telcos would have to pay for spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz.

Speaking at the sidelines of a conference here today the minister said, “We’ve decided to go ahead with the increase charge of the spectrum fee, what will be the modalities we will tell later.”

The issue has been a bone of contention between the GSM and CDMA operators. Both parties had expressed strong views and even approached the Prime Minister for a resolution to the matter.

This current move will affect major telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, which posses spectrum above 6.2 Mhz, which was allotted to them without any additional cost.

The proposal, however, has to be cleared by the Telecom Commission, the policy making arm of Department of Telecom, before it is taken forward.

Earlier this year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had recommended that allocation of a one-time charge beyond 10 MHz for GSM operators and five MHz for CDMA operators should be made by incumbents on a pro-rata basis for each additional MHz of spectrum that they would get.

The regulator had suggested that for every additional one MHz beyond 10 MHz in Mumbai, Delhi and category A circles, operators should be charged Rs 16 crore.

Further, Raja also indicated that the much waited auction of third generation (3G) spectrum could be delayed by 10-15 days. He said, “We will
try to complete it by December 31. However, because of Christmas and holidays, we could postpone it for another ten days. However the deadline is December 31, subject to a little changes,” he added.

The finance ministry had written to the Department of Telecom (DoT) expressing its concern over the delay in commencing the auction process.
Commenting on the letter, Raja said, “It is a routine letter, the finance minister asks for a time line usually, that does not mean they are pushing
us or asking for a delay. We will finish it (the auction process) by January 15, the operators have to submit the money by January 31.”