The government has waived the one-year spectrum fee for stand alone 3G telecom operators that do not currently offer 2G ser vices

The government has waived the one-year spectrum fee for standalone 3G telecom operators that do not currently offer 2G services. The move has been approved by the Telecom Commission and will be incorporated in the notice inviting application for the 3G spectrum auction. This indicates that if a new operator wins spectrum through the auction, it will not have to pay the spectrum fee for its first year of operations. However, existing 2G operators such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications (RCOM) will have to pay the spectrum fee.