Telecom majors raise concerns over steep spectrum pricing, ask govt for relook

Telecom operators in India have reiterated that there is a need for the government and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to take a relook at the current spectrum pricing to make it affordable for operators to roll out services and also improve the health of the industry.

Highlighting that the revenues of the operators are under pressure and that the ARPUs (average revenue per user) are much lower today compared with how they were in times of 2G, Bharti Airtel chief regulatory officer Ravi Gandhi said, “In 4.4 MHZ network of 2G, the ARPUs were in the range even higher than the ARPU of today.” He said it is important that the revenue potential that the operators would earn through that spectrum be kept in mind while deciding on the spectrum pricing.