Telecom operators gearing up to offer third generation mobile services will have to pay for separate spectrum. |
A senior telecom department official said whether there would be a separate service licence for offering 3G services or not would be decided once DoT went through Trai's proposals on 3G. But 3G services would carry a spectrum (wireless) charge, he added. |
Earlier, for similar services like 2G and 2.5G, operators did not have to pay separate spectrum charges as these services were offered on the same voice telephony spectrum. However, 3G services needed a different band of spectrum, the official said. |
Telecom operators said their current unified access services licences allowed them to offer 3G services, so there should not be any separate 3G licence. |
The operators' opposition comes from their apprehension of the rising cost of 3G services as it will invite two kinds of charges "" entry fee and then revenue share from the second year of service onwards "" if there is a separate licence. |
The government has not yet decided on whether this will be charged through entry fee and annual revenue share or other methodologies like auction. Currently, operators pay spectrum charges on a revenue share basis for the services at six per cent. |
The official said the government's decision with regard to 3G services may come earlier than the comprehensive spectrum policy. The government will decide on the 3G issues faster as a national spectrum policy may take more time to materialise and, with defence forces gearing up to release about 45 Mhz of spectrum meant for 3G services by December, DoT wants to decide on 3G issues fast. |
To this effect, separate guidelines on 3G will come, he said, adding that the general spectrum policy might take some time to come out and moreover it would focus on the general parameters. |
Traditionally, three methodologies have been used for licensing in the other countries ""auction, which has been seen as the most efficient mechanism for putting an economic value on spectrum and allocating it to the firm that uses it most efficiently. |
The other option is free licences, which entails providing the licences free of charge to the existing telecom players, as 3G spectrum allocation can be viewed as an extension of 2G spectrum allocations considering that the operators are allowed to provide services with a technologically neutral license. The first Trai recommendation had proposed this. |