RCom, Tata Tele to be charged Rs 2,900 cr one-time spectrum fee

New Delhi: CDMA operators Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices will have to jointly shell out around Rs 2,900 as one-time spectrum fee following the Cabinet decision on CDMA spectrum.

Charge for additional CDMA spectrum held by RCom is estimated to be around Rs 1,752 crore and for Tata Teleservices Rs 1,155 crore approximately, sources said.

The charges are based on reduced reserve price of CDMA spectrum approved by the Cabinet Thursday. They will be levied for spectrum allocated to them beyond 2.5 Mhz from January 1, for the rest of their licence period.

RCom and Tata Tele apart, Russian conglomerate controlled Sistema Shyam also holds spectrum beyond 2.5 Mhz in Rajasthan circle, but the charges that will be levied on the company could not be ascertained.

State-owned telecom companies BSNL and MTNL too hold spectrum beyond 2.5 Mhz in many telecom service area but charges applicable on these two firm could not be known.

Recently, the Department of Telecom issued demand notice of Rs 21,177 crore for one-time spectrum fee to GSM telecom operators.

According to this notice, for GSM services, state-owned BSNL will have to pay around Rs 6,912 crore, followed by Bharti Airtel - Rs 5,201 crore, Vodafone - Rs 3,599 crore, MTNL - Rs 3,205 crore, Idea Cellular - Rs 2,113 crore (includes Rs 231.5 crore of Spice), Aircel - Rs 1,365 crore (includes Rs 14 crore of Dishnet), Loop Mobile - Rs 606 crore and Reliance Communications - Rs 173 crore for GSM spectrum.

The companies were asked to pay their first instalment by January 15 which collectively amounts to Rs 8,115.68 crore. The companies were also given grace period of 21 days, starting January 8, but no company is learnt to have paid this amount yet.

PTI