Wireless Spectrum is topic of controversy as successive governments have favored set of operator/s and have given away India’s Natural Wealth [Spectrum] without determining the true price by means of auction, which has caused loss to none other than you and me. Here is the complete Spectrum Allocation Details Operator Wise, Circle Wise under both GSM and CDMA Segments.
We went a step ahead and compared the fees that operators pay for the spectrum they hold. Here is the finding of our study.
- We considered only the top PAN India operators who hold more than ~75% of the Wireless spectrum allotted till date and earn more than 90% of Wireless Revenues
- Airtel is paying the highest Spectrum fees – INR 315 cr for quarter ended Sept-09 and is holding 168 MHz of Spectrum in 900 and 1800 bands
- Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices pay the least spectrum fees [by virtue of them being CDMA operators]
- BSNL hold the highest spectrum [ 212 MHz in GSM 900 and 1800 bands] and [60 MHz in CDMA 800 band], which is underutilized and is paying substantially lower fees compared to what has been allocated to it
The following chart shows the Total Spectrum Allocated to the Top 6 Telecom Operators in India and the Spectrum Fees they have paid [INR Crore] for Quarter Ending Sept-2009.
From the above chart, it is clear that collectively operators have paid 801 cr fees for Sept-09 quarter. Annualizing the same, they’ll be paying about INR 4,000 cr fees / year [Include new operators]. Do you think this is justified ?
wonderful study
Could you please share the source of this information. Is it from TRAI??
Some of it is from the company and where we couldn't get it from the company, we were touching base with DoT and Ministry of IT & Communications. We can ascertain this is 99.99% correct data as on October-09.
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