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

CDMA operators Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices will have to jointly shell out around Rs. 2,900 crore 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 on Thursday.

They will be levied for spectrum allocated to them beyond 2.5Mhz from January 1, for the rest of their licence period.

RCom and Tata Tele apart, Russian conglomerate controlled Sistema Shyam also holds spectrum beyond 2.5Mhz 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 2.5Mhz 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.