Dual-technology holders have approached the government to allow them the option of going for liberalised usage of spectrum. Hoping that by choosing not to go for liberal use of spectrum, these operators can avoid paying the auction price of the spectrum for the balance period of the validity of their licences, something which the department of telecommunications has proposed.
This comes as the latest attempt on part of the operators as they look for ways to reduce their payout burden. ?With all the talk of incumbent operators having to pay the auction price for the balance period of their licence, operators like us will face double whammy as we will have to pay for both CDMA and GSM spectrum,? a senior telecom official told FE, referring to a draft Cabinet note circulated by DoT.
The Cabinet note proposes that all the existing operators be asked to match the price of spectrum discovered in the upcoming 2G spectrum auctions. Logic being that since the spectrum being auctioned in the 1,800 MHz and 800 MHz will be technology-agnostic, allowing the operators to use 3G or even 4G technology ? used for fast data transfer ? in the band traditionally allowed to be used only for 2G services . Hence, in order to bring parity in the sector, existing operators should be asked to pay up the auction price for the spectrum they already hold.
As a result the operators have knocked the doors of senior Cabinet ministers explaining their point of view. ?Data currently isn’t of much use to the rural areas, if we have to achieve the 100% teledensity as envisioned by the NTP 2012, it will be driven by penetration of cheap voice telephony. So the government should give us the option of whether we want to use this band for data or just continue using it for voice,? another telecom operator told FE.
Even though the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had recommended that the operators be given a choice of whether to use the spectrum liberally or not, the empowered group of ministers on the 2G spectrum auction headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has already vetted the telecom commission’s decision to make all spectrum allotted or to be auctioned in future, technology-agnostic.