India telcos to be charged for excess spectrum

NEW DELHI, INDIA: At a time when the Indian Government is about to unveil the ambitious roadmap for the telecom sector, Secretary, Department of IT, Ministry of Communication & Information Technology R Chandrashekhar informed that telecom service operators might be charged for holding excess spectrum beyond 4.4MHz.

“As a part of recommendations, charges would be levied on telcos for excess spectrum. However, a final decision is yet to be taken,” said Chandrashekhar. He also informed that the final call on M&A would be taken soon after due consultation.

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“These are matters, on which decisions are yet to be taken," Chandrashekihar said. In order to facilitate transparency, the government earlier said that it would sell 2G spectrum separately in future.

On a query on Web regulations, Chandrashekhar said that there is no question of Internet censorship. However, he declined to comment on the ongoing judicial process.