The Telecom Commission has not taken a decision on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s (TRAI) recommendations on mergers and acquisitions and spectrum pricing. The Commission?s next meeting is likely to be held on December 1, 2011.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is likely to finalise the National Telecom Policy, 2011 and all of these issues have to be resolved prior to that for their inclusion in the policy.
Prior to this, TRAI had sent its recommendations to DoT, which had asked the regulator to clarify a few points before finalising the NTP 2011.
While reiterating its recommendation of an over six-fold jump in 2G spectrum prices, TRAI had asked DoT to decide whether a one-time charge for additional spectrum beyond the contracted limit of 6.2 Mhz should be imposed.
TRAI had recommended that each Mhz of additional pan-India spectrum should have one-time cost of Rs 45.71 billion.
However, from circle to circle, it would vary and the operators would have to pay only for those areas where they hold extra spectrum. It had also suggested delinking spectrum from licences.
