Telcos chief to meet Sibal again on Monday

**New Delhi:**Chief executives of telecomcompanies are likely to meet Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal onMonday, the second meeting in a week, on the issue of highbase price fixed for auction of 2G spectrum.

The firms had on 2 May claimed that implementation ofsector regulator TRAI’s recommendation would lead to doublingof mobile telephony charges and had promised to submit proofof that within six hours.

[caption id=“attachment_299030” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Image courtesy PIB.”]  [/caption]

“They (Chiefs of companies) promised to submit proof oftheir claims like tariff hike and other issues within sixhours of meeting the Minister (Sibal). We were expecting it byThursday but not yet received it. Minister has now given themtime on Monday,” a senior Telecom Ministry official told PTI.

As per the official, Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal,Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao, Idea CellularChairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaasand a top-ranked representative from Videocon are likely tomeet Sibal.

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Industry body COAI chairman and CEO of Bharti AirtelSanjay Kapoor said that based on the calculation and otherrealities, the figure and facts suggest tariff can go up ashigh as 100 percent of the existing rate and this increasewill vary from circle to circle.

COAI has said that pan-India average of this increasewill range between 25 to 30 percent on recommended spectrumprice and spectrum refarming by Trai.

Trai has suggested a base price of Rs 3,622 crore for onemegahertz (MHz) for pan-India spectrum. This is around 10times higher than the price at which 2G licences bundled with4.4 MHz spectrum were allocated in 2008 under the then TelecomMinister A Raja.

As part of spectrum auction recommendations, Trai hasproposed roadmap for spectrum refarming under which existingplayer will be made to use high frequency of 1800 Mhz bandcompared to the low frequency band of 900 Mhz.

Telecom signals emitted using 900 Mhz frequency band coverlarge area compared to 1800 Mhz band. These proposals, ifapproved, will hit business of incumbent operators, includingBharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.

Vodafone has said refarming will put additional costburden of Rs 10,000 crore on the company for network roll outand Idea Cellular has earlier said that it will have towrite-off around Rs 17,000 crore.

PTI