Recently the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was requested by CDMA operators to put a stop on the auction of spectrum for the much awaited third generation (3G) services, till the time there is no clarification on some vital issues on charges of the spectrum. 

The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (Auspi) sent a letter to the Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, in which they briefed, “It is not possible to segregate the revenues earned through 2G services from that of 3G services. Auspi reasons that such bifurcation provides an arbitrage for operators to lower spectrum charges.”

Auspi has asked for the permission to allow the operators to make their case to a committee set up to decide on the method of calculation of spectrum charge.

It was put forward by DoT in its guidelines issued on 1st August 2008, “No annual spectrum charge would be payable for 3G telecom services in the first year from the date of allotment of spectrum and the licensee would have to pay annual spectrum charge of 1 per cent on the incremental revenue due to 3G services after a period of one year.”

However, the method of calculation was to be notified later. In order to clarify the details on the charge of spectrum that will allow the bidders to make their decisions, Auspi wrote to the secretary. 

“It is requested that this key aspect should be clarified before the 3G process is undertaken,” reported the association. 

The agency to conduct the auction of 3G spectrum is still to be identified by the Govt. by next week, the agency would be finalized and by the end of this year, the process of auction is expected to be completed.