Three percent licence fee on 3G operators recommended

New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS) The Telecom Commission Tuesday recommended to impose a licence fee of three percent of average gross revenue (AGR) on those mobile operators which will offer stand-alone third generation (3G) mobile services.

The existing players like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea which at present pay two to six percent of their aggregate revenues as user charges for offering 2G services would be required to pay one more percent if they secure airwaves to offer 3G services.

The 3G radio frequencies will enable network operators to offer a wide range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.

Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment.

However, the commission deferred imposing a one-time spectrum enhancement charge on 6.2 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum for telecom operators.

The commission also recommended a one percent increase of fee across slabs up to eight MHz of spectrum and two percent increase above eight MHz. These will be applicable from Jan 1, 2009.

The commission has also introduced a three year lock-in period on stake sales by promoters of new telecom companies and these operators cannot issue special dividend during these three years.