New Delhi, January 24: The chiefs of 5 top telecom companies will meet Kapil Sibal today to discuss the pricing of spectrum and its allocations. They include CEOs of top operators like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular. This will be the second meeting to be held in this regard. The meeting is likely to discuss matters related to the government’s proposal for a one- time fee for 2G spectrum, the disagreement regarding 3G roaming etc.
“Tomorrow’s meeting will have a wide-ranging agenda. Issues like pricing of spectrum (telecom airwaves) and allocation would also be discussed,” an official from Department of Telecommunication yesterday.
Concerns like banks refusing any loan to the telecom industry following the 2G scam will also be discussed. The telecom industry has been asking the Central government to issue a directive to the banks asking them to restore lending process.
Earlier, the government had made a proposal of telcos with single time fee for 2G spectrum, in surplus of 4.4 MHz for GSM operators and 2.5 MHz for CDMA players. But telecom companies say have stated that any move on these lines will hamper growth. This will discourage any fresh investment in the telecom sector that has more than 800 million subscribers.
The previous meeting was held on 30 November, 2011, with top industrialists like Sunil Bharti Mittal, Anil Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla etc interacting with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
The telecom industry is facing the need for guidelines on unification and acquisition, with licensing circles being over-crowded. Currently there are over 13-15 operators for each circle. Many of them, struggling for survival are desperate for an exit as the same is not mentioned in the existing policy.
—Agencies