Mobile tariffs could rise 5-10 paise if TRAI proposals on spectrum pricing are accepted
13 Jul 2012
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India now headed by its new chairman, Dr Rahul Khullar, expects mobile tariffs to rise by 5 to 10 paise if its proposals on spectrum pricing were accepted.
This contradicts the stance of the telecom companies, which had earlier said that tariffs could increase as much 90 paise with the implementation of the TRAI proposals.
In April, TRAI had proposed that the reserve price for the upcoming spectrum auction be fixed at Rs18,000 crore for 5 Mhz.
Additionally, the regulator proposed incumbent operators to be shifted from their existing superior spectrum band to another band considered to be less efficient. The move had been opposed by GSM operators on grounds that it would push up tariffs.
Contradicting the claims, Dr Khullar told the Empowered Group of Ministers that the profitability of operators would improve even if the tariffs were hiked by just 5 paise.
''Private parties have invariably couched their conclusions in terms of the impact on tariffs. It is not entirely clear how such analyses have reached these results in terms of the increase in tariff,'' TRAI said in its analysis to the EGoM yesterday.
