The Department of Telecom has reduced the fee to be collected from 2G players for being allowed to continue services post the Supreme Court order of February 2, 2012.
While the initial demand was proposed to be set at Rs 2,764 crore, the final amount has been fixed at around Rs 1,900 crore.
Biggest gainer
Etisalat DB is the biggest gainer as it liability has been reduced from Rs 605 crore proposed earlier to Rs 94 crore. Loop Telecom also gains as its pay out will be Rs 125 crore instead of Rs 385 crore proposed at the drafting stage.
The DoT has proposed the initial amount assuming that all the operators continued to offer services till March 15, 2013. However, players such as Loop Telecom had switched off their networks within a few months of the court’s order. The Supreme Court had directed the DoT to collect this fee from all companies that continued to offer services after the February 2 order.
Operators such as Sistema Shyam and Unitech Wireless continued to offer services to avoid disruption in services to consumers.
For example, Sistema Shyam, which offers mobile services under the MTS brand, continues to hold onto its old licences.
The company won spectrum in eight circles in the auction held in March and has been awarded the new unified licence by the DoT.
Norway’s Telenor too kept its operations alive so that it could participate in the November auctions. Unitech Wireless, the Indian subsidiary of Telenor, will have to pay Rs 515 crore while Sistema Shyam will be told to pay Rs 490 crore.
Apex court fiat
These players were able to sustain their operations because the DoT approached the court seeking more time to cancel the licences.
Although the initial order was to scrap the licences by August 2012, the DoT kept seeking extensions till the auctions were held.
While agreeing to the extensions, the Supreme Court told the DoT to collect a fee from the telcos based on the reserve price fixed for the auction.