In a damage-control exercise, telecom minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday said that in future 2G spectrum will not come free with telecom licences and that operators would have to pay market-driven prices for spectrum.
The minister said new 2G operators, whose licences are not cancelled, will have to pay market-driven prices for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz. Earlier, an operator would get spectrum up to 6.2 MHz without any up-front charge; 4.4 MHz was given as start-up spectrum and an additional 1.8 MHz was given after getting a certain number of subscribers. The change in policy means new operators will have to pay market prices for this additional 1.8 MHz. “For new operators, there is no licence agreement up to 6.2 MHz, that price (for 1.8 MHz) I can decide today. They will have to pay market price for that,” the minister said while announcing the broad contours of the new Natio-nal Telecom Policy. As far as old operators (who alre-ady posses spectrum above 6.2 MHz) are concerned, they will have to pay market price for spec-trum beyond 6.2 MHz, said Mr Sibal.