The Hindu Business Line : Cell operators divided over entry fee for unified licence

CELLULAR operators today presented divergent views on the issue of paying entry fee for migrating to the unified licence regime, as proposed by the telecom regulator.

At a meeting between the operators and the Department of Telecom, at Sanchar Bhawan here, cellular operators with national footprint such as Bharti and Hutch spoke in favour of an entry fee of Rs 107 crore for offering long-distance services, while smaller operators such as Spice and BPL objected to the proposal.

The industry was, however, united on most other issues, including scrapping the proposal to set up niche operators. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had suggested setting up niche operators to roll out the communication network in the rural areas. The operators also said that they were in favour of reducing the licence fee to six per cent of the annual revenues from 8-12 per cent now.

The issue of keeping non-telecom revenue out of the gross adjusted revenue was also discussed with the operators pointing out that this would enable service providers to offer free handsets bundled with the connection.

Industry sources said that during the meeting the Department of Telecom raised questions over the need for a unified licensing regime and instead sought to address issues relating to level-playing field among various segments.

On the issue of paying an entry fee for a long-distance licence, cellular operators, including Spice and BPL, said the Rs 107 crore was steep and that operators should be allowed direct connectivity between circles.

The meeting was attended by Mr Rajan Mittal, Joint Managing Director, Bharti Enterprise; Mr Ashim Ghosh, Managing Director, Hutchisson India; Mr Dilip Modi, Chairman, Spice Telecom; Mr Vikram Mehmi, Chief Executive Officer, Idea Cellular; besides representatives of various industry associations.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was represented by its CMD, Mr V.P. Sinha. The meeting was chaired by Mr Nripendra Mishra, Chairman, Telecom Commission. There were no representatives from the paging or the V-SAT sectors.

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