EGoM yet again defers decision on one-time spectrum fee

25 Jul 2012 Evaluate

The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom has yet again deferred a decision on one-time fees payable by incumbent telecom operators, on July 24, until the observations of the Supreme Court on the presidential reference are secured. This is for the second time in less than a week that the EGoM, headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram has deferred taking a decision on the matter.

The panel, which last met on July 20, recommended Rs 14,000 crore and Rs 15,000 crore reserve prices for 5 MHz pan India spectrum in 1,800 MHz band. Meanwhile, TRAI recommended Rs 18,110 crore reserve price for the same spectrum. The EGoM suggested two options for spectrum usage charge, a flat 5 per cent of revenue or retaining the status quo of 3-8 per cent, depending on the amount of spectrum held. 

Besides that, it also favoured deferred payment method for 2G spectrum, in line with the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Under this process, telecom companies will have to pay a certain amount of money up front for the spectrum, and the rest over a period of time. However, they will also have to pay interest on the deferred portion of the payment.

The ministerial panel even managed to pencil down stricter roll-out obligations for successful bidders and mandated Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to sketch a fresh matrix on the impact of the reserve price chosen on government revenue and operators’ rates. As per the new roll-out obligation, successful bidders will have to cover 10% of DHQs (district headquarters) by the third year, 20% of DHQs in the fourth year and 30% of DHQs by the fifth year. However, earlier the TRAI had recommended the operators that win spectrum would have to cover 50% of villages, in three years, and 100% coverage of the country in four years.

With the industry crying foul, the TRAI has proposed a near 10-fold rise in the auction’s starting price compared to what carriers paid in 2008. The regulator recommended 2G spectrum reserve price at Rs 3,622 crore per unit of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band, which translates to an amount of over Rs 18,000 crore for pan-India license, i.e. 13x of current base price of 2G and equivalent to 3G spectrum cost, where radio airwaves were vacated following the Supreme Court’s verdict on February 2 cancelling all the 122 spectrum licenses allotted in 2008 during the tenure of the former telecom minister A Raja.

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