According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), a maximum penalty of Rs 500 million can be levied on operators for violation of rules under the new unified licensing regime, say news reports.
Prior to this, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had suggested imposing a maximum penalty of Rs 100 million on operators for violation of licensing norms per service area.
In its notice inviting applications (NIA), DoT has also rejected TRAI?s recommendation of categorising the various violations committed by the operators into two categories-major and minor. As per TRAI?s recommendations, an operator has to pay between Rs 0.1 million and Rs 2.5 million for a minor violation and between Rs 5 million and Rs 10 million for a major violation.
DoT has also rejected TRAI?s recommendation of putting into place three levels of unified licence. Instead, it has made a provision for licences at the telecom service area level.
According to the NIA, existing and new operators participating in the 2G spectrum auction will have to pay a one time, non-refundable entry fee Rs 10 million for unified licences for each of the 22 telecom service areas, except for Jammu and Kashmir and the North East circles. The entry fee for these areas has been fixed at 5 million each.
