~ Favors Uniform SUC regime
but feels SUC charges should be applicable for spectrum obtained through
auction only and should be levied @ 1% of AGR to recover administrative
expenses, similar to BWA license terms ~
~Recommends lower SUC rates
for new players as an incentive to ensure level playing with incumbents, hence
greater choice for customers~
New Delhi: January
6, 2014: Videocon Telecom, the telecommunication arm of the $4 Billion Videocon
Group, favors uniform SUC, but only on spectrum procured thru auction and that
too to the extent of recovering administrative expenses similar to the current
BWA license terms.
The telco is of the
opinion that in the earlier regime, spectrum was allocated administratively
where there was no payment made for spectrum allocation by any operator, hence
there was a logic behind charging slab based SUC in accordance to amount of
spectrum allocated. In the current regime, however, spectrum is allocated thru
an open market mechanism, to derive the exact market value of the spectrum. Therefore it is fair that SUC charges should
levied only to the extent to cover the administrative expenses towards the
management of the spectrum.
Under the current SUC policy, charges are levied
according to the amount of airwaves held by the operators, and are charged
between 3% to 8% basis the spectrum allocation. In short, the Incumbents who
are holding large amount of spectrum will end up paying SUC at the upper end of
the range.
TRAI on this has recommended uniform spectrum
usage charge (SUC) of 3% to 5% of revenue earned by mobile operators from
telecom services from April 1, 2014. The uniform SUC, if implemented as per
recommendations made by TRAI, will be favorable to the incumbents.
The views of telco
has come in just before the TRAI’s recommendations are to examined by the
Telecom Commission on levying of an uniform annual fee on spectrum usage.
According to Mr.
Arvind Bali, Director and CEO, Videocon Telecom “In the earlier license
regime, spectrum was allocated administratively, where there was no payment by
the operator for spectrum allocation, hence the reason of a slab based Spectrum
usage charges was logical. However, in the current regime, spectrum is
allocated thru auction, where the operator is paying the market value of the
spectrum, thus SUC to the extent to cover the administrative expenses should be
payable, which is the case of BWA license terms.
The new
policy recommendation is only beneficial to bigger operators as a flat SUC rate
will bring them huge monetary savings on the spectrum administratively obtained
in the earlier regime.
Worldwide,
telecom policies support newer operators with various advantages and I feel
that the same should be followed in the Indian telecom sector as well. Any
policy should promote level playing field for all, and we recommend lower SUC
for new players to ensure level playing field for all and hence greater choice
to customers.
