The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has published a notice as per which the operators who won spectrum in the recently held 2G auction will have to pay the required fee by December 1, 2012, say news reports.
As per the notice, the operators will have to either make the full payment or at least 33 per cent by the aforementioned date. The remaining sum will have to be paid in installments after two year moratorium. In case the operators do not deposit the spectrum fee, the earnest money they deposited earlier will be forfeited.
The government will also adjust the entry fee (paid by operators for 2G licences won in 2008, which were subsequently cancelled by the Supreme Court order) for the total fee that the operators pay for the spectrum acquired in this auction.
DoT would set off the entire amount from the initial payment or from the gross amount that the operators have to pay. Based on the individual operator’s preferences, DoT would recalculate the installment amount to be paid by each operator.
The recent auction of GSM spectrum in the 1800 MHz band garnered revenue of Rs 94.07 billion. Operators including Telenor-promoted Telewings Communications, Videocon Telecommunications, Idea Cellular, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel won spectrum in the auction.
