Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India have requested the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to provide compensation for delaying the allocation of spectrum, which was won in the auctions in February 2014, by more than six months. The operators are of the opinion that they are facing heavy interest liability owing to the upfront payment made by the operators to acquire spectrum in the auctions. Further, they have been unable to utilise spectrum for any commercial gain, and the expansion of their existing networks have also been delayed.
Airtel had paid Rs 55.25 billion for acquiring spectrum in the Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai circles, in addition to the Rs 25.42 billion paid as bank guarantees. The company has stated that further delay would impact 10.4 million subscribers in the Delhi circle and 3.9 million users in the Kolkata circle.
The issue assumes urgency because the 20-year licences issued to these operators will expire in November 2014. The operators thus require spectrum before the due date in order to migrate their networks on to the new frequency bands.
Earlier, the Telecom regulatory Authority of India had recommended that in case of a delay in allocation of spectrum beyond one month from the date of payment, telecom service providers should be compensated at an interest rate based on the State Bank of India prime lending rates for the amount paid.
