Teleco chiefs meet Sibal on spectrum pricing

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday held discussions with top telecom executives about the key issues of the Ministry including spectrum pricing, allocation of radio waves and one-time fee.

Bharti Airtel CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal and the company CEO Sanjay Kapoor, RCom Chairman Anil Ambani, Vodafone India's CEO Marten Pieters, Idea Cellular MD Himanshu Kapania were among the leaders who met Sibal.

“All the operators conveyed their views on various issues which are also a part of regulator Trai's recommendations on 'Spectrum Pricing and Framework'. The minister will take the final call on telecom commission’s suggestions soon," Department of Telecom (DoT) secretary R Chandrasekhar told reporters.

The issues concerning the operators include one-time fee for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz for GSM operators and 2.5 MHz for CDMA players, besides allocation of radio waves through auction-only route.

According to sources, other issues discussed in the meeting also included the National Telecom Policy-2011.

This was the second high-level government-industry interaction in less than two months. The first meeting was held in November 2011.