Another blow to telecom

Govt needs to decide what it wants to do with the sector

The Supreme Court has pronounced on a long-running dispute between the legacy telecommunications companies, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, and the government about the nature of fees the companies must pay. The court upheld the position of the government, saying that the companies must pay Rs 92,461 crore (about $13 billion) to the government. The telecom companies had argued that revenue sharing with the government as part of the spectrum fee should be limited only to their earnings from the use of the spectrum; the government insisted that other revenue, such as from interest or rents, should also be