The Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission are of the view that Department of Telecommunications (DoT?s) proposal of charging existing telecom operators with one-time licence fee will be in violation of licence agreement between the government and the operators.
Earlier in the year, following the cancellation of 2G licence by the Supreme Court DoT circulated a cabinet note which proposed charging incumbent telecom operators with one-time licence fee for holding spectrum in excess of 4.4 MHz, for the remaining period of their licences. This according to the DoT would create a level playing field for all the telecom players.
The Ministry of Finance has written to the DoT stating that creating a level playing field for the new players by asking the existing telecom players to pay the auction discovered price for excess spectrum held by them, may not happen as new operators may have access to advanced technologies and software which could translate to higher efficiency and lower costs for them.
The Ministry of Finance has instead suggested that existing players could be given the option of using spectrum up to 4.4 MHz or up to 6.2 MHz without any additional fee. And this spectrum should be used by them only to offer 2G services. In case these telecom operators want to use this spectrum to deploy higher technology then they should be asked to pay.
DoT will be taking up this issue for discussion today.
