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The Department Of Telecommunications had proposed to levy a one-time spectrum charge from incumbent operators for the remaining period of their licences.
The Cabinet has decided to refer the issue to Empowered Group of Ministers after the move which was opposed by Finance Ministry, Planning Commission and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. The meeting was headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Without taking any decision on the proposal to charge a one-time, auction-determined fee for spectrum held by existing telecom operators, the cabinet referred the issue to the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM). ”The cabinet has referred the issue of one time spectrum fee to the EGoM has to send its recommendations back to the cabinet,” a government official said after the cabinet meeting.
According to the sources in the Department Of Telecommunications, three proposals were presented to the cabinet.
a) Levy a fee on spectrum held 6.2 MHz.
b) Levy one-time fee on all airwaves held by existing telecom companies.
c) Impose a fee on airwaves held beyond the start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz.
As of now it is not clear when the Empowered Group of Ministers meeting would take place. A meeting scheduled for Monday was postponed earlier and by the evening its new head, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar even opted out of the panel.
Everyday there is a new twist in the story, so we have to wait and see what really comes out of it.
PD July 6, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Sharad Pawarji excused himself from EGoM, likewise not many members of the Group may not wish to be party in taking decisions- Reason :Big Brothers (Public) are watching. Had it not been the recent revelations of umpteen scams in various deals (thanks to RTI, Annaji, etc.), all would have been happy to decide, recommend and share ! Sibalji is just wants to Announces Plans but would take no interest in anything else !
jitu shah July 6, 2012 at 2:07 pm
All new enterants shud b banned especially videocon and uninor
Saurabh July 6, 2012 at 8:53 am
This shameless cartel is bringing forward the point that spectrum sharing is allowed in 2G i.e one operator can get into an agreement with other and use its network for providing coverage to its users until unless they install their own then same should be applicable to 3G also but they must not forget that 2G sharing or Intra-Circle roaming on 2G is allowed only when both operators having license for that circle. Look, Aircel is using Tata Docomo 2G network in Haryana and both these companies have license. Similarlly in other circles too both have spectrum.
But in case of 3G only one of them is having spectrum and they are operating as MVNO which is clearly in violation of licensing terms.
I think, DoT should have banned all this when Virgin started operating as MVNO and then T24 is also doing the same.
DoT should bring an end to this issue through mutual consent and charge both the operators in same circle on the revenue sharing model. NTP 2012 also suggests the same i.e charging both the operators who are sharing network. This will help all i.e Govt, Companies and consumers.
Saurabh July 5, 2012 at 4:21 pm
We have now become habitual for these kind of news. Delay, Defer, Postpone, Withdraw, Dismiss, Cancel, Reject, Injustice, Fail and many other words are favorite of our Goverment as they do it all the time or whenever we read any news, these words are always there.
To take or make a policy or decision, you need a stronger will-power and seriousness. Unfortunately our so called Govt department and cabinet and most of people in our country lacks it.
Their inability to take timely decision or actions have hurted the country in past, hurting now and will keep on hurting in future.
Goverment is just making fun of the system. First TRAI made illogical recommendation by keeping base price at 18K crore for 5MHz. The base price for 3G was Rs.3500 crore then how come base price for 2G can be kept that high? I don’t think if auctions were held, the final price would have reached anywhere near to half of the base price. Then DoT delayed on its part and then EGoM which was constituted for taking decision never held meeting and now when cabinet was to take decision on one-time fee, cabinet referred it to EGoM.
So, when TRAI, DoT, EGoM and Cabinet all are confused and just referring the matter to each other like we see in most of our Govt department which keep on sending the files to different people and at last people return empty hand, the same is happening here.
I read that DoT will again ask Supreme Court to extend the deadline for spectrum auction. I feel SC should not extend it at any cost and stay with their decision otherwise there will be new deadlines all the time. In some countries we see Govt or companies completing work even before the deadline but here people keep on asking for extension from a student to an organisation or a company or Govt itself. All in all, we can see it everywhere.
I hate those who can’t complete their work in time.
Abc July 5, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Our telecom industry is nothing but scam and a mess. Instead of improving and removing uncertainty, they continue to remain shameless.
Also, the NTP 2012 is announced. What’s the implementation date for nationwide free roaming and intra-circle MNP? 15 Aug 2012?