Department of Telecom may consider one-time levy for extra spectrum tomorrow

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet is likely to discuss tomorrow contentious issue of one-time spectrum charge that Department of Telecom (DoT) has proposed to levy on incumbent telecom operators for the remaining period of their licence.

"A approval of the Cabinet is being sought for levy of one-time spectrum charge on the existing spectrum holdings of the telecom service providers at the auction determined price," sources in DoT said.

The telecom department is of the view this will enable a level playing field among all service providers and will "be in the interest of proper conduct of the telecom services".

DoT has proposed four options to charge spectrum held by existing operators which include charging all spectrum held by them or charging beyond 4.4 Megahertz spectrum that was allocated to players with their licences or charging beyond the contracted spectrum of 6.2 Mhz. One option suggests no one-time charge for current spectrum.

Operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular hold more than 6.2 Mhz spectrum in some circles and the companies may be hit if this proposal is cleared by the Cabinet.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had recommended that additional spectrum held by operators above 6.2 MHz limit should be charged.

Trai had also suggested that the one-time fee would vary from circle to circle and the operators would have to pay only for those circles where they hold extra spectrum.