GSM players pay more than half of total spectrum fees

Two leading GSM mobile operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone have contributed over 58 per cent of the total spectrum revenue realised by the government during the April-June quarter.

The government has realised Rs 817.12 crore as spectrum fee from the telcos during the period, out of which Bharti and Vodafone together paid Rs 478.23 crore.

All telecom companies currently share between 2-6 per cent of their revenues with the government as spectrum usage charges depending on the quantum of spectrum they have.

Out of all the telcos, Bharti Airtel was the largest contributor towards the payment of spectrum fees.

Bharti Airtel along with Bharti Hexacom and Bharti Broadband has paid Rs 293.57 crore as spectrum fees.

Bharti was followed by Vodafone Essar which has paid Rs 184.66 crore as the spectrum charges during the quarter.

Two other pan-India telecom operator, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices using dual spectrum, both CDMA and GSM, have collectively paid Rs 143.16 crore to the government during the three-month period as spectrum charge.

Reliance Communications had paid Rs 73.55 crore as spectrum fees, while Tata teleservices paid Rs 69.61 crore as the spectrum fees.

An analysis by sectoral regulator Trai suggests that the GSM players has given more money to the exchequer in the form of licence fee and spectrum fee compared to the dual technology operators such as Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications.

Under attack from certain section of the telecom industry for holding excess airwaves, the GSM operators had been saying that other mobile phone firms such as Tatas and Reliance Communications hold same amount of spectrum but pay 5-6 times lower levies when compared to them.

State-run BSNL, which paid Rs 106.01 crore as spectrum fees, was the third highest payer for the spectrum charges.