Vodafone Essar and Bharti Airtel have strongly opposed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)?s proposed formula recommendations on 2G spectrum pricing.
In a statement, Bharti Airtel has said, ?The recommendations by TRAI go against the stated principle of the Government to offer affordability, fairness and level playing field. For 2G spectrum pricing, TRAI while moving away from its earlier arbitrarily linked 3G pricing levels, has now in many cases gone beyond 3G values. This goes against Telecom Minister’s acknowledged position that 3G is significantly more efficient than 2G and services must remain affordable for the masses. ?We fail to understand the reason for linking the auction price only to spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz. The price discovered through a fair and open auction must apply to all spectrum allocations.?
In a statement, Martin Pieters, CEO, Vodafone Essar said, ?The recommendations do not rectify the completely illogical difference in the treatment of spectrum given to GSM operators and to Dual Technology operators. Although the latter have between 10 and 40 per cent more spectrum than Vodafone, the new TRAI recommendations suggest that they will pay insignificant amounts as one-time spectrum fees while the incumbent GSM operators will have to pay thousands of crores rupees as a one-time spectrum fee. The discriminatory nature of the TRAI recommendations is shockingly clear: only the older GSM operators (who paid thousands of crores in ongoing and escalating spectrum charges over the last ten years and continue to pay far more than dual technology or new operators) are being punished for building the Indian communications industry, rolling out into rural areas and for choosing the right technology.?
