The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has approached the Attorney General of India for an opinion on whether spectrum charges ought to be applied on operators whose licences in the Chennai and Tamil Nadu circles were merged between 2005 and 2008.
DoT has asked if it was legally tenable to levy charges for the extended period of spectrum from 2014 to 2018 in either of the circles in case of merger of licences in the same.
Prior to this, DoT had asked operators to merge the operations in their Chennai and Tamil Nadu circles in 2005.
Thereafter, it levied spectrum charges applicable for the 9.8 MHz band for the merged Tamil Nadu circle. It had also levied Rs 2.33 billion as the entry fee for a new company in the merged circle, as well a 10 per cent charge on the adjusted gross revenue from March 2008 onwards.
