The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked operators whose 2G licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court in 2012 to pay a fee of Rs 19 billion for continuation of telecom services to users, even after their licences were cancelled.
The Supreme Court had directed the DoT to collect this fee from operators that continued to offer services after the court?s order dated February 2, 2012.
Earlier, DoT had asked operators to pay a fee of Rs 27.64 billion in this regard. The DoT had proposed the initial fee assuming that the operators continued to offer services till March 15, 2013. However, players such as Loop Telecom had shut down their networks within a few months of the court?s order.
At the same time operators such as Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL) and Uninor continued to offer services to avoid disruption in services to consumers. In case of SSTL, it continued to hold on to its old licences and subsequently participated in the spectrum auction held in March 2013. The company won spectrum in eight circles under unified licencing regime.
These players were able to continue their operations because the DoT had approached the Supreme court seeking more time to cancel the licences. Although the initial order was to cancel the licences by August 2012, the DoT kept seeking extensions till the time fresh auctions were held. While agreeing to the extensions, the Supreme Court told the DoT to collect a fee from the service providers based on the reserve price fixed for the auction.
