By IANS,
New Delhi : The government has collected Rs.2.15 lakh crore for 2G, 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum and licensing from the telecom operators up to June 2011, the Lok Sabha was informed Wednesday.
The government has received Rs.1.27 lakh crore as the spectrum charges and Rs.88,095 crore as the licence fee from telcom operators, Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The minister said the telecom regulator has recommended delinking of spectrum from licenses in future licensing. The recommendations are being considered by the government.
Speaking on the recent hike in call tariffs by some operators, the minister said that the hike is not across the board, but for certain plans and categories.
“The major change is in respect of on-network local and STD charges which have been restructured to be at par with off-net call charges. The service providers have attributed this change to increase in the cost of providing service and decline in profitability to improve the quality of service despite spectrum constraints,” he said.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued regulatory prescriptions as per which the existing subscribers are protected from any hike in tariff for a specified period.
The minister also said that the operators have assured the TRAI that tariff for existing subscribers will be protected against hike in accordance with the regulatory mandates.