Hike entry fee for a pan-India telecom licence too: TRAI
Telecom regulator TRAI has told the department of telecom (DoT) that if the government wants to impose a one-time spectrum fee on all GSM operators who hold radio frequencies above 6.2 MHz, it should also hike the entry fee for a pan-India telecom...
By Joji Thomas Philip, ET Bureau |
NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator TRAI has told the department of telecom (DoT) that if the government wants to impose a one-time spectrum fee on all GSM operators who hold radio frequencies above 6.2 MHz, it should also hike the entry fee for a pan-India telecom licence.
The DoT had recently written to TRAI seeking its views on imposing a one-time spectrum fee on those telcos who hold over 6.2 MHz. CDMA-based operators have been demanding that GSM players be slapped with a one-time fee equivalent to the market rate since the licence entitled them to only 6.2 MHz of radio frequencies.
Trai, in its response to DoT, has remained silent on the one-time fee, but said that the issue cannot be looked at in isolation. It has suggested that the Rs 1,651-crore entry fee, which was fixed in 2001, also be hiked.
However, a TRAI source clarified the issues were not interlinked. ���We are only reminding the significance of this to the government. If the government is hiking spectrum charges and imposing a one-time fee, they should also increase the entry fee. We want all hikes to be looked at in totality,��� the TRAI official added.
The DoT had recently written to TRAI seeking its views on imposing a one-time spectrum fee on those telcos who hold over 6.2 MHz. CDMA-based operators have been demanding that GSM players be slapped with a one-time fee equivalent to the market rate since the licence entitled them to only 6.2 MHz of radio frequencies.
Trai, in its response to DoT, has remained silent on the one-time fee, but said that the issue cannot be looked at in isolation. It has suggested that the Rs 1,651-crore entry fee, which was fixed in 2001, also be hiked.
However, a TRAI source clarified the issues were not interlinked. ���We are only reminding the significance of this to the government. If the government is hiking spectrum charges and imposing a one-time fee, they should also increase the entry fee. We want all hikes to be looked at in totality,��� the TRAI official added.
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���The Authority feels that as the DoT is revisiting the various levies being charged from the telcos, therefore it is appropriate time for the DoT to revise the entry fees of the different service areas also, so as to bring them in line with the present market realities. Presently, the entry fee for the UAS license in a service area varies from Rs 233 crore for Tamil Nadu to Rs 1 crore for West Bengal.
These entry fees have been determined on the basis of the price discovered in the bidding of the 4th CMSP licence in 2001,��� TRAI said in its response to the DoT. The regulator also added that an isolated or piecemeal hikes with a view to mopping up additional revenue may hurt the growth of infrastructure and in the long run the telecom sector itself.
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