Govt mulls settling cases with telcos out of court, exploring ways to scrap existing SUCs

New Delhi: The government is considering settling ongoing legal cases with telcos through an out-of-court settlement process to sharply reduce the litigation burden on the telecom industry as part of the next phase of telecom reforms.

The Centre is also exploring how to abolish the existing spectrum usage charge (SUC) as part of the next set of reforms, having scrapped the fees for airwaves to be bought in future auctions, senior officials said.

“Telcos and the government are locked in numerous court cases and the only ones benefiting out of this are lawyers. Telcos themselves want these court cases settled as soon as possible and the government also wants to reduce the burden on telcos so that the sector grows healthily,” said a senior government official.