The Hindu Business Line : TRAI to hike spectrum charges for mobile cos

New Delhi, July 16 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has agreed to a proposal by the Department of Telecom to increase spectrum charges for mobile operators across the board.

Operators currently pay between 2 per cent and 8 per cent of their annual revenues to the Government depending on the quantum of spectrum they hold.

TRAI has now agreed to increase this to 3 per cent on the minimum side and 9 per cent on the higher side. This means operators with 4.4 Mhz spectrum will have to pay 3 per cent of their annual revenues instead of 2 per cent earlier.

This will be a blow to new operators as they will have to start paying higher charges. Even existing players who have 8-10 Mhz spectrum will have to pay one per cent higher charges.

This increase is expected to fetch an additional Rs 1,000 crore revenues for the Government. Though the regulator said that this will put burden on the operators, it has decided to go with the DoT’s proposal keeping in mind the broader interest of the telecom sector.

On the issue of pricing of spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz, TRAI said that DoT will have to specify the rates before it can give its views.

DoT proposes to impose a one-time fee on all operators who are holding more than 6.2 Mhz. According to cellular licence terms GSM operators are entitled to only 6.2 Mhz. However, some of the operators have been allocated up to 12 Mhz on the grounds that their subscriber base was growing.

Some of the new operators had written to DoT wanting a fee on existing players. Mr Amar Singh, MP and leader of the Samajwadi Party had also written to the Prime Minister seeking a one time fee on the existing players having more than 6.2 Mhz. DoT had sought TRAI’s views in this regard.

This is not the first time that the TRAI has decided to agree with DoT’s proposals. Last week the regulator issued revised recommendations on 3G services in line with the views of the DoT.

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