The Cabinet has approved the empowered group of ministers? (EGoM) recommendation of imposing a spectrum usage charge (SUC) of 5 per cent of the annual gross revenue on all new airwaves an operator acquires in the upcoming auction, say news reports.
Meanwhile, the existing contractual obligation for broadband wireless access spectrum in terms of SUC will continue to be pegged at 1 per cent. However, companies will be required to pay a usage charge of 5 per cent for the new airwaves they acquire. Also, these players will have to separate the revenue gained from BWA and new spectrum.
Prior to this, DoT had cleared the applications submitted by eight operators for the upcoming spectrum auction. However, DoT restricted Vodafone India and Reliance Communications (RCOM) from bidding for pan India spectrum. While Vodafone India cannot bid for seven circles, RCOM cannot bid for eight circles. Meanwhile, Tata Teleservices Limited cannot bid for spectrum in the Delhi circle.
Other players including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Telewings Communications have been allowed to bid for spectrum in any circle across the country.
Following the scrutiny of applications, DoT had disallowed RCOM to bid for spectrum in the eight circles where it operates GSM services through a subsidiary Reliance Telecom. These circles are Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Orissa and West Bengal. Vodafone India cannot bid in circles including Assam, North East, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.
