'GSM firms paid Rs 1,800 cr for additional spectrum'

NEW DELHI: GSM-based mobile players, under attack from CDMA lobby for allegedly getting additional spectrum free of cost, on Friday countered the charge saying they have paid about Rs 1,800 crore on radio waves till date.

"GSM operators are paying an extremely high charge for the additional spectrum that is alloted to them," it said in a letter to Telecom Minister A Raja.

As per the existing regime, the GSM industry over next three years alone will pay over Rs 10,000 crore as spectrum usage charges to the government, of which almost Rs 6,000 crore would be on account on the high incremental charges being applied by the government over and above the initial two per cent charges.

Spectrum is not being given away free to the GSM operators and in fact a very heavy price is being imposed on the operators as charges for GSM spectrum use, T V Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director general Ramachandran said in the letter to Raja.

The lobby claimed that the government is likely to recover 10 times the entry fee over licence period from spectrum usage charges.

As per the current formula, GSM operators with 10 MHz of frequency are paying a charges of four per cent of Adjusted Gross Revenue and this would increase to six per cent for allocation of 15 MHz, Ramachandran said.

Govt rules out auction of 2G spectrum

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday denied any move to auction spectrum for second generation mobile services - a shift from the current subscriber-linked allocation policy.

"There is no question of that (2G auction)... I am not having any such intention," Telecom Minister A Raja today told reporters here.

The Department of Telecom had earlier said a CDMA operator had written a letter to the government seeking auction of additional spectrum against the current subscriber- led allocation.

As per the present policy, a GSM operator receives up to 6.25 MHz, while a CDMA operator gets up to 5 MHz, on meeting the specified subscriber base criteria. An additional allocation is made on the basis of the operator's subscriber base.

As per the unified access licence, the government had not committed more than 6.2 Mhz to GSM players and, therefore, any subsequent allocation may be auctioned, the CDMA player is believed to have said.

However, the GSM operators have opposed the demand

BSNL to issue new GSM tender: Raja

NEW DELHI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will float a new tender for installing 40-50 million GSM lines, to be completed within 8-9 months, to expand its telecom services, the telecoms minister said on Tuesday.

"I am told that they are ready to go for a larger tender ... 40-50 million lines," A Raja told reporters. Earlier, BSNL had said it did not have plans to issue a fresh tender as it was still finalising an existing order.

BSNL has ordered 14 million 2G GSM lines from Ericsson and Nokia, the first phase of a 23 million line order that will be done in two steps, but was waiting for the companies to respond.

The firm cut the size of its original tender to 23 million lines from 45.5 million lines after Raja asked it to negotiate a lower price.