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Business News/ Politics / News/  Govt can’t give licence to 3G entrant without Trai nod
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Govt can’t give licence to 3G entrant without Trai nod

Govt can’t give licence to 3G entrant without Trai nod

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New Delhi: Telecom regulator Trai has questioned government’s readiness to give a licence to first time entrant in the telecom sector upon its successful bid for 3G, saying regulators’ recommendations are a must for this.

Successful bidders, who do not have licence, would be given one and the terms and conditions of the existing licence shall be amended accordingly, DoT had said, while announcing the policy for 3G telephony.

DoT had also said that the new player would have to pay a licence fee of Rs1,651 crore without allocation of existing 2G spectrum.

“As this would require laying down the terms and conditions of this new licence, including the annual licence fee, therefore the telecom authority would like to draw the attention of DoT to the Trai Act wherein recommendation of TRAI is necessary," Trai chairman Nripendra Misra said in a letter to telecom secretary Siddartha Behura.

The DoT may revisit the present guidelines for auction and allotment of spectrum for 3G telecom services on this issue and some other matters mentioned in the letter, Misra said.

According to sources, the DoT has already initiated a process to appoint an independent agency for policing the auctioning of spectrum for 3G services in a transparent manner and if the policy was sent to Trai for its recommendations the process may get delayed.

In case a non-licensee entity becomes successful bidder in the auction then he will be given a new (modified) Unified Access Service (UAS) licence at an entry fee but without the provision of 2G spectrum, DoT had said.

Trai has mentioned various clauses of section 11 of the Trai Act saying this would require its recommendations.

Trai has also sought clarification from the DoT on the issue of annual spectrum charges for 3G services.

DoT should have a one year moratorium on incremental annual spectrum fees for 3G spectrum from the time of its allocation. After this one year, the DoT should charge operators an “additional annual spectrum charge of one per cent of the operator’s total adjusted gross revenue."

Besides, the regulator has also made observations on various other issues related to guidelines and has sought clarifications from the DoT.

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Published: 12 Aug 2008, 06:02 PM IST
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