The Department of Telecom on Tuesday issued notices to telecom companies to pay a one-time charges for spectrum held beyond 4.4 Mhz. The one-time spectrum charges for Bharti Airtel is Rs 5201.24 crore, Reliance Communications has to pay Rs 173.47 crore, Vodafone Rs 3599.40 crore, Idea cellular Rs 1,882 crore, BSNL Rs 6,912 crore and Loop Rs 606 crore. MTNL and Aircel also have been asked to pay.

The DoT has given the operators to pay the money in instalments over the balance period of their licence. The one-time charge was earlier approved by the Cabinet to bring a level playing field with the newer operators who have been told to buy spectrum through the auction.

However, industry sources said the telecom companies may challenge this order in the court. The Government is hoping to get Rs 20,000 crore from the one-time charge.

The one-time fee has been calculated on the basis of the recently concluded spectrum auction. Since four circles — Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Karnataka — received no bids during the auctions, the charges levied are provisional. They will be adjusted based on the outcome of the next round of auction scheduled for March. Similarly, the one-time fee for 900 Mzh will also be adjusted once the auction gets over.

All operators with over 4.4 Mhz of spectrum will have to pay this fee for the remaining period of their licence. For example, Airtel in Delhi owns 10 Mhz spectrum, but its licences expires in 2014; therefore, it needs to pay for 5.6 Mhz airwaves for the remaining one year.

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