DoT firm on spectrum charge date

The Department of Telecom has decided to continue with the policy of charging spectrum from the mobile operators from the date of earmarking of the radio waves despite the operators seeking a change in it to link it to the actual roll-out of services.

In a meeting held with DoT recently, mobile operators opposed the decision to start charging spectrum from the date of its allotment saying even if, for some reasons, they were unable to roll out services, they will have to pay the spectrum charges, which is unreasonable.

DoT officials said, many times operators don't start services for their own reasons and it has found instances hoarding of spectrum. DoT cannot be a mute spectator to the misuse of a key resource.

The operators' plea of unreasonableness to avoid the payment of spectrum charges as long as possible cannot be considered, they said.

The policy was adopted by DoT in April 2005. The operators are given a minimum six months time to start the services after they sign the licence, despite that if they do not start the service, spectrum charges cannot be forgone.

Cellular operators pay spectrum charges on revenue sharing basis at a rate of 2 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue for use of the spectrum up to 4.4 MHz + 4.4 MHz, an additional 1 per cent for bandwidth up to 6.2 MHz + 6.2 MHz, and another 1 per cent for spectrum up to 10 MHz + 10 MHZ.

CDMA players are charged 2 per cent up to 5 Mhz of spectrum. But with many operators faltering on the network roll out obligation, they have subsequently been given notices on proposed penalty which they blame on spectrum availability.