Bharti asks govt to continue with existing 2G spectrum criteria

Leading telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has urged the government not to change existing spectrum allocation criteria and to continue with the additional 2G spectrum allocation policy based on subscriber figures.

Existing GSM operators — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular — are critical of telecom regulator Trai’s recommendation of imposing a one-time fee, linked to the recently-concluded 3G auction, on operators who hold 2G spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz. In a letter to the communications and IT minister, A Raja, the company said: “Any operator who has been allocated spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz in 2006 shall pay the enhanced charge, despite the fact that the government has allocated spectrum in 2008 to the new licencees at a fixed price of Rs 1,650 crore. We, therefore, feel no one-time spectrum charge can be levied for any previous allocations against the terms and conditions of licence or allocations. If at all any such charge, it has to be very reasonable for the operators who have invested hugely to build rural networks.”