The Hindu : Front Page : Charges politically motivated: Raja

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Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008
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Charges politically motivated: Raja

Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI: Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja on Tuesday said all charges against him regarding corruption and favouritism in spectrum allocation were “politically motivated” and that he had only followed recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in giving spectrum to 2G mobile service providers.

He hinted at mobile charges coming down as the Centre wanted to reduce the termination charges being given by one operator to another.

“We have given spectrum as per the recommendations of TRAI that has not called for auction of 2G spectrum. By making false accusations, my political adversaries are only trying to blame me,” he said at the Economic Editors’ Conference here.

He said his Ministry was collecting more revenue from mobile operators. “We are collecting spectrum charges by fixing various slabs, besides planning to impose one-time charge from operators. The 30-crore subscriber base has brought us Rs.55,000 crore revenue, and by 2012 it would only double when the number of subscribers reaches 60 crore.”

Mr. Raja also said mobile tariffs may come down as his Ministry had asked for implementation of TRAI’s recommendations on reducing termination charges (from 30 paise per minute) that an operator, on whose network a call originates, pays to the operator on whose network the call terminates.

He also said mergers and acquisitions between new telecom operators would be allowed only after they completed three years of operations after being issued licenses. The market share of the merged entity in the relevant telecom region should not be more than 40 per cent either in terms of subscribers separately for wireless and wired line phones, or in terms of adjusted gross revenue, he said. “We have referred the three-year lock-in period to TRAI, and Ministries of Company Affairs and Law. The Ministry was also considering easing norms for rollout of services.” Under the existing rules, telecom operators are required to roll out 10 per cent of services within a year and are liable to pay a penalty if this obligation is not met. However, if the new norms are introduced, operators will have three years to roll out 50 per cent of services. .

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