Telenor has paid 33 per cent of the bid price to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for the spectrum it won in the recently concluded 2G spectrum auction, say news reports.
Telenor had to pay, following DoT?s decision not to allow the company to offset the entry fee paid by the company?s earlier joint venture partner, Unitech, in 2008.
According to DoT, Telenor had bid under a new and separate entity winning licences in six circles in the recently concluded 2G spectrum auction. Therefore, the entry fee of Rs 16.58 billion paid by Unitech could not be offset.
Unlike Telenor, other operators like Videocon and Idea Cellular who secured fresh spectrum did not have to pay entry fee to the government as they had paid the fee in 2008 for their licences, which were later cancelled by the Supreme Court.
Earlier in October, 2012, Telenor had approached the government stating that the entry fee paid by its earlier joint venture partner, be set off against payments that were to be made by Telewings Communications Services Limited ? the new company set up by Telenor which secured licences in six circles.
However, DoT, did not approve of the company’s request on grounds that as per the decision taken by the Empowered Group of Ministers, the entry fee would be set off for only those players whose licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court in February, 2012.
