www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Indian communications ministry is reportedly set to inform the new government that it is open to increase the reserve price for the auctions of pan-India 3G spectrum to INR 35.4 and auction up to eight slots of 3G spectrum. The reserve price for pan India 3G spectrum, according to the existing 3G policy is INR 20.2 billion , accommodating 5 players per circle. DoT plans to increase the reserve price and will ensure that finance ministry approves the hike for the upcoming 3G auction. The DoT has arrived at INR 35.4 billion by doubling the reserve price for Delhi, Mumbai and category A circles and increasing it 1.5 times for Kolkata and category B circles retaining the current base price for category C circles. The cabinet may look into the proposal within two weeks, communications and IT minister A Raja, reportedly said. If the ministry’s proposal gets green signal from the cabinet in its current format, the 3G auctions will be held within three months.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Indian Govt has reportedly called off its decision to slash the licence fee for telecommunication operators with a large network presence, following opposition from the finance ministry. An Official reportedly said that the communications ministry will notify all telecommunication companies that the licence fee cut, previously planned for 1 April, has been shelved.
Earlier, DoT has announced that the proportion of revenues telecommunication operators pay as licence fee to the government would be cut by 2 percent of their total revenues if they prove that their services are available in 95 percent of the residential areas in a state or a telecommunication circle, with effect from 1 April.
Presently, the incumbents are paying 6%. 8% and 10% (based on the ranking of their circles) of their AGR as licence fee. The cut in licence fee would have help operators to save INR 20 billion in the next fiscal year. The rollback decision will hit Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar and BSNL the most as their networks cover all census towns and large villages in several states.
The time frame to implement the cut is not yet decided. A decision on the licence fee cut will now be made by the new Indian government that comes to power after the April-May general elections.