TRAI for admin charge on 3G spectrum

The telecom industry regulator has proposed an administrative charge on 3G telephony service providers – at 2 per cent of their highest bid amount. This would be over and above spectrum fees.

The telecom industry regulator has proposed an administrative charge on 3G telephony service providers – at 2 per cent of their highest bid amount. This would be over and above spectrum fees.

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), has made this recommendation to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on a reference made on spectrum charges for the services for which the process to get private bids are expected to get started in January.

However, there will be a moratorium on the administrative charge for one year from the date of allocation of spectrum as the “operators will take time to roll out their services,” the regulator said in recommendations submitted to the DoT on Wednesday.

In order to ensure a level playing field between the existing mobile service providers and standalone 3G service providers, TRAI has recommended that the standalone 3G service providers should also pay an annual spectrum charge of 3 per cent of annual gross revenue.

This is equivalent to the lowest slab of 2G operators. This charge would be in addition to administrative charges.

The regulator also recommended an auction of all available spectrum in the 2.1 Gigahertz brand to maximise the number of 3G service providers and called for a public declaration of available spectrum to ensure transparency.