The new telecom operators who were granted licences by A Raja have jointly written to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), urging that the government must not charge them for spectrum up to 6.2 Mhz since this would amount to reneging on the licence agreement. These operators at present hold only 4.4 Mhz of spectrum.
The letter comes in the backdrop of the telecom commission close to finalising the price of additional 2G spectrum. The DoT has differed from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s view that spectrum up to 6.2 Mhz is guaranteed under the licence with no additional charge. The DoT’s view, articulated by the telecom minister Kapil Sibal is that all spectrum, whether it is beyond 4.4 Mhz or 6.2 Mhz should be priced on the basis of a market-determined price. The new telecom policy has said that in future all licences would de-linked from spectrum so there would be no start-up spectrum bundled with licences.
As a result new operators like Uninor, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices (for their GSM licences) may have to pay for the additional 1.8 Mhz, which they are opposed to.
In a letter to the telecom minister Kapil Sibal, Reliance Communications, Uninor, S Tel, MTS and Tata Teleservices have said, ?we are deeply concerned about this proposal as we have contractual arrangement with the government for allotment of 6.2 mhz against one time entry fee and based on that we did our network, financial and marketing planning activities and decided the roll out plans. Hence any change to the already existing contractual arrangements with regard to allocation of additional 1.8 mhz will be highly discriminatory, against the principle of level playing field and likely to derail our business plan?.
