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Govt may compensate BSNL for 3G, wireless broadband
By siliconindia
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Wednesday, 07 April 2010, 21:17 IST |
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New Delhi: In a bid to stabilize the financials of BSNL the government may refund a significant portion of what BSNL pay for 3G and broadband wireless spectrum, reports Economic Times.
If refund option is unviable, the government may examine the possibility of permitting BSNL to defer payment for the airwaves until the government owned telecom completes its restructuring process. BSNL will get 24 months to pay for the airwaves whereas the private operators have only a 10 day period to pay the bid amount. This will give BSNL a 24-month window to pay for the airwaves, unlike private operators which have only have a 10-day period to cough up the bid amount. Private operators may strongly oppose any concessions to BSNL.
It is estimated that BSNL may have to shell out anywhere between $2-3 billion for the airwaves as auction norms mandate it. The base price for pan-India 3G spectrums is Rs 3,500 crore ($780 million approximately), while for broadband access frequencies, it is Rs 1,750 crore. Last year, the Communications Ministry had given a headstart to BSNL by giving it 3G and broadband wireless frequencies.
Private operators will be given 3G airwaves, which enable them to offer high-end services such as video conferencing and high speed internet on mobiles, after the sale process that kicks off on April 9. Falling revenues from landlines and the three-year delay in expansion contracts for its mobile networks are likely to trigger the state-owned BSNL to declare its first ever loss for the year-ended March 31, 2010, after it was corporatised a decade ago.
In the past few years, despite heavy criticism and even legal challenges by private operators, the government has made several other concessions to BSNL