Indian Telecom Industry is constantly making headlines and hence compelling us to cover it on our blog site. This time Indian Telecom Regulator (TRAI – Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has come out with a unique decision to charge the operators for the existing spectrum on GSM 900 over and above the 6.2 Mhz. It suggested that a one-time fee be benchmarked against 3G auction pricing.
Bharti, India’s biggest cellco, said the proposals were “shocking, arbitrary and retrograde” and go “against all existing global norms for spectrum allocation and efficiency.”
Vodafone India called the recommendations “opaque, illogical and discriminatory.”
Analysts estimate that Bharti and Vodafone will have to cough up $700 million and $650 million respectively in spectrum charges if the proposal is signed off by the government, said the FE.
The additional burden comes amidst fiercer-than-expected bidding in India’s 3G auctions and the prospect of billions of dollars of 3G rollout costs. Bids for pan-Indian spectrum yesterday reached the $3.21 billion mark, more than twice original estimates of $1.3 billion.
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