Govt approves Trai proposal of refarming, eyes spectrum of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone

Bharti Airtel may have to surrender airwaves allocated to it in 900 Mhz band on expiry of its licence

The government is considering taking back only a part of the spectrum allocated to old telecom players and give chance to other operators to buy them at the auction.

The government has approved the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) proposal of refarming, under which old operators namely Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, may have to surrender airwaves allocated to them in 900 Mhz band (premium frequency band used for 2G services) on expiry of their licences.

These companies will have the option to repurchase these airwaves through auction proposed in first half of 2013.

The proposal is learnt to be part of an amicable solution, which the telecom ministry is offering to the industry, and is packaged around spectrum price policy, refarming and minimum price of airwaves to be paid in the auction, due before August 31.

Meanwhile, in a move to bring uniformity in the sector, the government has decided to charge 8 per cent of gross revenue as licence fee from all telecom firms across all categories and services from 2013-14.