Articles
Revised Telecom Law - Allocation of Radio Spectrum
Dt:27/12/23
Revised Telecom Law - Allocation of Radio Spectrum
Dr T H Chowdary*
One of the long overdue and most citizen friendly provision in the recently legislated Indian Telecom Law is the provision for allocation of radio spectrum not through auctions but by an administrative decision . The Center for Telecom Management and Studies (CTMS) which was founded in the late 1980s has been for long arguing that auctioning the radio spectrum for telecom services is immoral and unjustified. The radio spectrum used by the service providers is not generated by the government. It is generated by the licensed companies themselves. The government auctioning the radio spectrum which it does not generate and therefore it does not own, is totally unjustified.
2. Further the radio spectrum is inexhaustible because the same band of spectrum can be used again and again indefinitely by the technique of it being used in areas called cells far removed from one another .
3. Sunlight is not generated by government . It is god -given and not owned by government. Rightly it is not auctioned for the generation of electrical power. In the same fashion, the radio spectrum not generated by government, ought not to be auctioned.
4. The use of the spectrum of a given band of spectrum can be regulated so that the same band is not used by different licensees in the same area. Such regulation by government costs and it is that cost that can be recovered from the licensed operators.
5. Currently, the use of the auctioned spectrum paid for by the buyers of the spectrum is again charged under the head “usage charges”. This is like a builder selling a flat, getting the full payment and yet charging for use by the buyer of the flat for living in the flat, that is purchased and paid by him. Government should remove this irrational and unjustified spectrum usage charges from the licensed operators.
6. The priced paid in the auction and the usage charges are recovered from the price of the service. If these are removed, the telecom services will be cheaper by about 40% than what they are now.
7. Government should change its policy of auctioning the spectrum as well as levying the usage charges for the spectrum allocated to companies. (370 words)
END