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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Sept. 29 In view of the objections raised by the telecom regulator, the Department of Telecom is now rethinking its earlier decision to allow operators to separate their revenues from 2G and 3G services for the purpose of calculating the annual spectrum charges.

The DoT has set up a committee to look into whether a mechanism to segregate revenues was possible or not.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had told the DoT that such a separation was not possible.

In a letter to the DoT, the regulator had said, “Both these services are capable of providing triple play services. Moreover, there will be many common control equipment for 2G and 3G and apportioning the cost to these two services will be a very complex and cumbersome exercise. There is also the apprehension that such bifurcation of the revenue may lead to some service providers paying lower spectrum charges.”

The industry is also divided on the issue with CDMA players supporting the views of TRAI. However, the Cellular Operators’ Association of India said that it was possible to segregate revenues and operators in Hong Kong have implemented such a mechanism.

Operators currently pay a maximum of 4 per cent of their annual revenues depending on the quantum of the 2G spectrum they use. DoT has said that operators need to pay one per cent on revenues earned from offering 3G services as spectrum charges.

This means that an operator like Bharti Airtel, instead of coughing up a total of 5 per cent of their combined revenues from both 2G and 3G services, will have to pay 1 per cent on revenues from 3G services and another 4 per cent on revenues from 2G services separately.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings

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