The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued notices to CDMA players asking them to pay a one-time licence fee amounting to Rs 30.33 billion.
The CDMA operators have to pay this one-time licence fee for holding additional spectrum beyond 2.5 MHz in the 800 MHz band. Operators like Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices Limited and Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited hold spectrum beyond 2.5 MHz in a few circles.
According to DoT, the one -time licence fee will be levied on the operators for the remaining period of their licences. Further, the operators which do not wish to pay the fee will have to surrender the additional spectrum held by them. The operators need to pay one-time licence fee for each MHz of additional frequency, based on the reserve price fixed during the recently concluded spectrum auction held on March 11, 2012.
The operators have the option of paying these charges in equal annual installments ensuring that the last installment of the payment is made a year before the expiry of the spectrum licence held by an operator.
As per the estimates, operators like RCOM and TTSL will have to pay a one-time spectrum fee of Rs 17.52 billion and Rs 11.55 billion, respectively.
