Cellular service providers demand refund of 3G license fees

Players Vodafone, Idea and Bharti Airtel entered into an agreement with each other sometime ago to offer 3G roaming facilities to their users in the areas where they were unable to win the 3G spectrum. The Telecom Department’s regulatory and enforcement cell however, refuses to recognize such a pact as legal and binding. In fact, it considers it downright illegal.

Corporate honchos heading the companies in question have written about the matter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sent a copy of the same letter to Communications Minister Kapil Sibal. The leaders are asking for a refund of the initial license fees they paid, along with interest and compensation of the capital investments made by them if their agreement is indeed considered illegal.

The letter signed by Sunil Bharti Mittal, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Vittorio Colao clearly states their stand. According to them, the telecom companies are providing roaming services to their customers, and that does not amount to spectrum sharing. They say that even DoT in its correspondence to TRAI does not consider Intra Service Area Roaming in 3G networks, where a player does not have 3G spectrum, a case of spectrum sharing. 

The letter reads, “In the event, the 3G ICR is now deemed impermissible, then it would be clear breach of our contract and the pre-auction confirmation given by the Government. In that eventuality we request that our spectrum auction payments be refunded to us with interest along with compensation for all the capital investments made by us.”

The operators are awaiting a reply from the PM on the issue. This subject could quite easily spiral into a bigger problem, one that leaves consumers bearing the brunt of all the confusion. Hopefully, the parties concerned will come to a consensus in the near future, saving time, money and energy that would surely be lost unnecessarily if the matter is not put to rest soon.