Airtel welcomes uniform licence fee

Bharti airtel has welcomed the decision of the government to levy uniform licence fee, across different telecom licenses and service areas, announced by Kapil Sibal, minister for IT & Communications.

''We welcome the much awaited policy guidelines announced by the Hon’ble minister today. These guidelines will benefit the telecom sector immensely in the long run. The decision to apply uniform licence fee across different telecom licences and service areas is a welcome step and will help avoid any arbitrage opportunity,'' said the operator.

The operator also expects from the government to cut the license fee to 6 percent over the next couple of year, as recommended by TRAI.

''The announcement on merger & acquisition is an encouraging step from the point of view of the long-term health of the telecom industry and will pave way for consolidation in an over-crowded market.

The government should also consider allowing spectrum sharing in all the bands. However, the higher spectrum usage charge, which is applied on the total spectrum held by both the operators, will act as a deterrent to sharing. We hope the government will review this,'' the operator added.

The company has also welcomed the government's intent to initiate a comprehensive study on the adequacy of USOF and the need for augmenting USOF schemes with appropriate direct incentivisation.