In a fresh attempt to counter demands of GSM operators for a uniform spectrum usage charges (SUC), Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio Infocomm wrote a letter to the Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal and members of the Telecom Commission (TC). In the letter, company explained its legal view on a uniform SUC and said that the demand from Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and other operators “are not only factually incorrect and misleading but are without any valid justification.”
The letter comes after commission's indecisive meeting on SUC. The letter was also marked to members of the TC, which is now expected to meet again in the next couple of days. The spectrum usage charge is levied annually as a percentage of revenue earned by telecom companies from telecom services. It currently varies between 3 to 8 per cent.
Reliance Jio said the spectrum allocated to incumbent telecom operators carry mobile signals more efficiently compared to the airwaves (2.3Ghz) that the company holds and will call for 2-3 times more investment in infrastructure for telecom services than others. “Given these spectrum characteristics across different bands, there cannot be any valid justification for levy of uniform SUC, as demanded by these operators, irrespective of spectral efficiencies,” Reliance Jio said.