Telco chiefs meet PM, FM, Sibal on 3G, spectrum pricing

NEW DELHI: Amid a stand-off between telecom companies and the government, the chiefs of private service providers today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek an early resolution to the dispute over agreement on 3G roaming services and one-time fee for additional spectrum.

Chiefs of leading telecom firms, including Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel, Anil Ambani of RCom and Vittorio Colao of Vodafone, among others, also met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Telecom Minister Kapil SIbal to put their point of view, sources said.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) and the sector regulator Trai have termed the existing agreement among operators for offering pan-India 3G services, despite not having spectrum in all the circles, as violation of licence norms, a charge rejected by the industry.

Besides 3G roaming, operators also discussed various issues like one-time fee additional spectrum held by GSM operators and Trai's recommendations on merger and acquisition, sources said.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have entered into a roaming pact among themselves in circles in which they had failed to bag 3G spectrum auction held last year.

However, there was no official word on the outcome on the meetings.

Recently, the DoT had said in an internal note that the roaming agreement among telecom companies for 3G services would lead to a significant loss of revenue for the government.

There may also be an impact on revenues from spectrum usage charges collected from operators, according to the internal note prepared by the DoT.