The Hindu Business Line : CDMA operators seek licence fee cut

The CDMA based mobile operators, including Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, on Wednesday demanded reduction in revenue share licence fee to six per cent from the current 8-12 per cent.

"We have taken up very strongly with the Ministries of Communication and IT and Ministry of Finance for reduction of revenue share licence fee to six per cent," said Mr B B Anand, the newly elected President of the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI).

The association also expressed concern over delays in getting interconnection from BSNL and said they were working closely with the telecom PSU to resolve the pending issues to get interconnection faster. Commenting on the recommendations of TRAI on spectrum allocation for third generation (3G) mobile services, Mr Ashok Sud, Vice President, AUSPI said, they were balanced for both CDMA and GSM operators.

On the differences within AUSPI members over key issues, Mr Sud said that disagreement was part of a process and both Reliance and Tata Teleservices will work together on important issues that the two companies agree on.

"Instead of focusing on the differences we would rather work together on common areas of interest. Differences are fine as long as they are not deal breakers and so far the differences between Reliance and Tatas are not at that level." The two companies have been at the opposing sides on issues such as subscriber-linked spectrum policy and pricing for 3G spectrum.

On the relevance of AUSPI in the light of Reliance's proposed foray into the GSM space, Mr Sud said that as long as Reliance worked for promoting CDMA in the country, there was no problem.

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