Telcos to pay Rs 31,000 cr spectrum allocation fee

It has set a base price of Rs 14,000 crore for 5 MHz of a pan-India GSM spectrum, more than seven times what companies paid in 2008 to get telecom licenses. For CDMA, the base price was set at 1.3 times the GSM airwaves.

However, no bidder is left in fray for CDMA auction after Tata Teleservices and Videocon Telecommunications withdrew from the sale.

Chidambaram said licensees "will be given an option to surrender spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz for GSM" if they don't want the one-time fee.

Also, payments can be made in monthly installments at 9.75 per cent interest rate.

(Reuters) Cabinet approved a plan to levy a $5.7 billion surcharge on airwaves (spectrum fee) held by long-established telecommunications operators that will hit market leaders Bharti Airtel and Vodafone's local unit and two state-run carriers the most.

A ministerial panel had proposed to the federal cabinet that GSM-based carriers be asked to pay for airwaves beyond 4.4 megahertz at an auction-determined price, while CDMA carriers pay for holdings beyond 2.5 megahertz, for the remaining validity of their permits.

On the top of that, it had also suggested that GSM-based carriers who have more than 6.2 MHz of airwaves should also pay a retroactive fee for the extra airwaves for the period between July 2008 and December this year.

The telecommunications minister has said the surcharges being proposed are aimed at creating a level playing field between old and new operators.

Both GSM and CDMA

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