India’s GSM and CDMA operators including Tata Teleservices (TTSL), Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar strongly opposed and slammed Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s recommendation to charge incumbents telecom operators a one time fee for holding 2G spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz.

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TRAI has proposed introducing a uniform rate of 6% as annual licence fee component of total adjusted gross revenues from 2014.Presently operators pay in the range of 6 % to 10% as licence fees.

Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) said TRAI’s recommendations are shocking and it has completely ignored our status as a dual-technology holder, and that TTSL should have been given precedence over those who have already received minimum start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz and now have been recommended to get 6.2 MHz. It is important for TTSL to get level playing field vis-a-vis other dual-technology holders who got spectrum, especially as TTSL has already been waiting for more than 30 months for the minimum start-up spectrum across various Circles, including Delhi . We hope this will be rectified by the authorities soon and that our long wait for minimum start-up spectrum will not be pushed further behind.

India 2nd largest GSM Mobile service operator Vodafone Essar said “it was deeply concerned that Trai had deviated from a forward looking spectrum reform framework recommended earlier by DOT’s Expert Committee. While the DoT Committee recommended a forward looking and coherent set of proposals, the Trai recommendations have cherry picked dozens of incompatible elements and resulted in a set of proposals which are opaque, illogical and discriminatory.”