AUSPI Opposes One-time Spectrum Charge, Alleges It Will Favour Existing Operators

The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI), the industry body of new telecom operators, has opposed the one-time charge for spectrum already held by existing licensees for the remaining period, stating it will favour incumbent GSM operators.

The Department of Telecommunications had proposed that once the price of spectrum is fixed for the upcoming auction, the existing operators should be asked to pay the price for the spectrum they currently hold. However, the government is yet to take a decision on the same.

Terming the proposal as “highly discriminatory” against its members, AUSPI said that Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular would have 8, 10 and 9 licenses respectively due for renewal out of 22 licenses in 2014 to 2016 and these companies have paid much lower amount than Rs. 1,659 crores on Pan India basis for acquiring their Pan India licenses.

The association also said that metros and most of category A circles will be due for renewal in 2014 to 2016, which have much higher spectrum fee than category B and C circles. The three incumbent operators Airtel, Vodafone and Idea will be paying only for 2 to 4 years for highly priced circles, Aircel would be paying for 8 to 12 years, while Reliance and Tata will be paying for both GSM and CDMA spectrum for 8 to 12 years, it said.

The DoT has proposed that instead of charging for spectrum held beyond 4.4 MHz, incumbents should be asked to pay for the entire spectrum that they hold in order to ensure a level playing field among operators.

Supreme Court Cancels 122 Licences Given in 2008, (2G SEPCTRUM)

What come as a shocker for many operator is the judgment passed by the Supreme Court today which has cancelled all 122 2G licences.

As per ET the licenses of 11 companies have been cancelled the penalties have been imposed on Tata Teleservices, Unitech and DB Realty.

The Mobile Service providers (GSM/CDMA) that are set to lose on account of the cancellation of the licences are Uninor (joint venture between Unitech and Telenor of Norway), Loop Telecom, MTS India(Sistema Shyam TeleServices) Cheers Mobile – Etisalat DB (joint venture between Swan and Etisalat of UAE), S Tel, Videocon, Tatas and Idea Cellular.

All these 122 licences issued by former telecom minister A Raja in January 2008 on first—come first—serve basis, Uninor (Unitech-Telenor) was alloted 22 pan India licences, Loop 21, Sistema-Shyam/MTS India 21, Cheers Mobile or Etisalat—DB 15, S Tel (Shiva Group & BaTelco) 6, Videocon 21, Idea 9, Spice Communications 4 (now owned by Idea Cellular) and Tatas 3.

The companies can operate the quashed licenses for 4 months and TRAI has been asked to make fresh suggestions for grant of licenses.