High spectrum prices to hit telcos, says GSMA

New Delhi, March 27

High spectrum prices in the just concluded auctions are likely to put financial pressure on the Indian telecom operators who will eventually pass on the impact in the form of rise in tariffs to consumers, global industry body GSMA said today.

The biggest telecom spectrum auction ended on Wednesday after 19 days of fierce bidding and fetched around Rs 1.10 lakh crore to the government.

“Unfortunately these high prices will put increased financial pressure on operators and ultimately have a negative impact on consumers, reducing the value derived from the spectrum and hindering future economic growth and social gain in India,” GSMA chief regulatory officer Tom Phillips said.

The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association for GSM.

This comes a day after Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said as per an analysis, “the yearly load on telecom operators is going to be around Rs 5,300 crore...and 1.3 paise per minute (mobile phone) call.” The GSMA, however, appreciated the large number of bids made by telecom operators and added that “This outcome reflects the commitment of national mobile operators to invest in India.”

It urged the government to enable a business and regulatory environment built around trust and certainty, which will facilitate investment by operators to expand mobile broadband services across the country. — PTI