With the empowered group of ministers (eGoM) meeting on spectrum auction soon, leading telecom player Vodafone India has appealed to the finance minister to accept the sector regulator’s recommendation for uniform spectrum usage charge (SUC) regime and setting the SUC at 3% adjusted gross revenue (AGR) for upcoming auctions.
The eGoM is meeting on November 22 to decide on various aspects related to the auction, particularly the Trai recommendations on the valuation and reserve price of spectrum. Vodafone says if SUC is maintained at the existing “differential and discriminatory” levels instead of a uniform SUC as recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), it would once again stifle participation in auctions.
“Trai has rightly highlighted that the existing SUC regime has spawned several anomalies and contains numerous inherent deficiencies. For example, it acts as a disincentive for any merger or acquisition, spectrum sharing and trading as well as acquiring any additional spectrum,” the company said in its appeal. “It also creates unwanted opportunities for arbitrage between bands and technologies likely to operate under a common unified licence.”
Vodafone has asserted that correcting the existing SUC regime is imperative for any effective spectrum reforms to be implemented. “Failing this, all spectrum policy reforms being considered by the government such as mergers and accusation norms, spectrum sharing, trading, etc will simply not succeed,” it added.
It also fully supports and endorses the Trai recommendation that the government take an in-principle decision to allow spectrum trading and announce this prior to the commencement of the forthcoming auctions, preferably as part of the auction Notice Inviting Applications. The company has also submitted that the existing 900 MHz being used by operators should not be put up for sale. Instead, a reasonable price for its extension should be set after mutual discussions, it suggested.
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