3G Roaming Pact to Cause Revenue Loss: DoT

Monday, 28 November 2011, 15:22 IST
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NEW DELHI: The roaming agreement among telecom companies for 3G services, which is in violation of licence norms, would lead to significant loss of revenue for the government, according to the telecom ministry.

There may also be an impact on revenues from spectrum usage charge collected from operators, according to an internal note prepared by the DoT. Recently, the chiefs of three leading telecom firms - Bharti, Idea and Vodafone - in a jointly signed letter had sought the prime minister's intervention in the dispute over 3G roaming pact, or else they threatened to surrender spectrum.

Sector regulator Trai and the law ministry have already termed the roaming pact among these players as illegal, saying this tantamount to spectrum sharing which is not allowed as per the policy. "The amendment also indicates that in case of misuse of the spectrum, the allotment of spectrum can be revoked," the note added.

In the auction for 3G spectrum, held last year that had fetched over 68,000 crore for the government , the operators had won certain circles. Later, they entered into roaming pacts with each other for circles in which they could not win the bid.

Besides these players, others like Tatas and Aircel have also entered into similar agreements for various circles.

 


Source: PTI