The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) has reportedly requested the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to scrap its plans of charging incumbent operators an auction-determined price for spectrum for the remaining period of their licences.
AUSPI has also urged DoT to allocate contracted spectrum under the existing licencing policy, and not through auctions.
AUSPI’s move comes ahead of the scheduled meeting of the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) headed by P. Chidambaram, Minister of Finance, on October 4, 2012. The EGoM is expected to discuss DoT’s proposal of asking existing operators to match the auction-determined price of spectrum prospectively. It will also examine the issue of spectrum re-farming.
Existing 2G licences will have to be renewed in 2013. According to AUSPI, the government’s move to charge operators a one-time licence fee by changing the terms and conditions of the existing licence agreements is illegal. The industry body is of the opinion that the move will result in creating inequalities and discrimination amongst the incumbent operators.
