Telcos to move court against one-time airwaves fee
GSM operators are set to challenge the Department of Telecom's decision to imposing one-time airwaves charge.
The Department of Telecom’s (DoT) decision to impose a one-time airwaves charge may not see a smooth implementation with media reports suggesting the GSM operators are planning to move the court against the decision. According to reports, the DoT had recently informed the GSM operators about imposing one-time airwaves charge, both ‘prospectively’ and ‘retrospectively,’ which is supposed to come into effect from January 1.
“The notices have come. Individual operators will be moving the court soon on this,” Rajan Mathews, director-general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is quoted as saying.
According to an Economic Times report, several officials from leading operators have confirmed plans to take legal action against the DoT decision. The move is expected to add to the ‘uncertainty’ in the industry. Back in November last year, the Cabinet has given its nod to the proposal to impose a one-time airwaves charge on GSM-based operators. The decision, if implemented, the operators may have to suffer a blow of minimum of Rs. 24,989 crore.
The private telecom operators have to shell out about Rs. 13, 171 crore whereas the Indian government will share burden of one-time fee for state-run companies BSNL and MTNL. The telecom department has however allowed the operators to pay a third of this charge upfront and the remaining in installments. The department is expected to release separate orders with regards to one-time spectrum charge for CDMA operators who have spectrum beyond 2.5 MHz in the 800 MHz band.
Back in December, the leading operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular had asked PM to intervene on the issue. Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor, Idea Cellular MD Himanshu Kapania and Vodafone India MD and CEO Marten Pieters, in a joint communication, had said the one-time airwave charge was against the bilateral settlement between in the government and industry in 2002.
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