M&A, spectrum trading shouldn't attract differential in prices: Auspi

Auspi also asked the government to give a clear road map on availability of spectrum and future auctions

The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (Auspi) on Wednesday said cellular operators should not be required to pay differential amounts of market and administrative prices in case of merger and acquisitions (M&A) and spectrum-trading.

Auspi made the statement in a letter to the new Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad. The government has already decided that in case of M&A, companies would be required to pay the differential amount of market and administrative price.

Auspi also wrote the government should fix the reserve price for the 800 MHz spectrum band and conduct the auction at the earliest, with a reasonable reserve price which should be much lower than the 1,800 MHz band. The earlier auctions have failed to get response from dual technology operators due to high spectrum price.

Pure-play CDMA (Code division multiple access) operator Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which operates under the MTS brand, has only acquired spectrum in a few circles to stay operational. The government should also give a clear roadmap on the availability of spectrum and future auctions, Auspi said.

The association also said the government should bring down the contribution of operators towards the universal service obligation fund to one per cent, from the present level of five per cent. In order to define adjusted gross revenue of telecom companies, the Department of Telecommunications should entrust the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India at the earliest, it said.

Auspi also asked the government to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the telecom sector at favourable rates.

Representatives of Auspi, which lobbies for dual technology operators like Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices who operate in both CDMA and GSM technology, had met Prasad last week with their demands.