The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has trained its guns on penalties being levied on telecom operators by the government. In a first instance, its chairman Rahul Khullar (pictured) has termed them “absurd and a knee jerk reaction”.
“This knee-jerk response of Rs 50 crore of fines multiplied by 22 circles... this is absurd,” Khullar said on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event here on Friday.
Over the last few months, the government has issued notices asking for about Rs 20,000 crore as a one-time spectrum fee to telecom firms, including Vodafone, Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications, among others. The telcos also face penalties for having intra-circle 3G roaming arrangements, which DoT calls illegal. The issue is now sub judice.
On spectrum trading, Khullar said, “Trading of spectrum for some reason has been treated as a holy cow. Everybody is buying spectrum on auction, why don’t you let them trade?”
Interestingly, telecom minister Kapil Sibal, who was also present in the previous session of the event, had said the government is working on giving powers to the regulator to levy financial penalties. Currently, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) can levy financial penalties on operators.
Khullar, who of late has been critical of some of the government’s measures, had last month laid out a consultation paper seeking stakeholders’ response on valuation of reserve price for 2G spectrum. The industry had cited high reserve price as the prime reason behind the failure of the two earlier auctions.
Trai had said the 3G spectrum sold in 2010 auction was seen as catering to the provision of data services such as video and other data packets. This was significantly different from the voice-dominated services provided on 900, 1800 or 800 MHz spectrums. 3G services have a different ecosystem, growth profile and even subscriber base compared with 2G.
Meanwhile, Sibal announced that the much-awaited unified licences, which aim to free operators from limitations on use of technology for services, will be out in a couple of days. “File has come to me and I have to sign it,” the minister told reporters on the sidelines of the event. M&A norms “according to me will be in place by September”, he added.
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