Changing its earlier stance, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has decided not to levy any spectrum usage charge on spectrum released by the defence forces. DoT’s Wireless Planning Cell had earlier stated that unless the spectrum charges were paid, DoT would not issue any fresh allocation of spectrum to the defence forces. However, the Ministry of Defence contested the decision, stating that since it was not earning any revenues from the spectrum, it was not liable to pay any spectrum usage charges. Besides, the ministry recently stated that it would not be able to meet its scheduled deadline of August 2010 to vacate 3G spectrum for commercial use. Therefore, DoT, which viewed this as a protest against its decision to impose spectrum usage charges, had to give in to the ministry’s demands to facilitate the timely allotment of 3G spectrum to the recent 3G auction winners.
