Bharti calls charges on Qualcomm buy as double fee

India's No. 1 telecom carrier Bharti Airtel has told the telecom department that any charge for merging the operations acquired from Qualcomm will tantamount to a double entry fee.

Bharti Airtel had bought out Qualcomm's stake in their joint venture Wireless Business Services Pvt Ltd in 2013. Bharti Airtel is now looking to merge the internet service provider (ISP) permit of this entity, which has been renamed Airtel Broadband Services Pvt Ltd, with its own unified access service licence (UASL) for four circles.

ET had reported earlier that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is planning to charge Bharti Rs 436 crore for the merger. In a Airtel letter to the DoT, Bharti Airtel has explained that the rule requiring an entity to pay the entry fee while migrating to access services was to ensure a level playing field.

However, the operator already holds UASL permits, implying it has the right to use airwaves for voice telephony in the four circles of Haryana, Delhi, Mumbai and Kerala. A copy of the letter, dated September 23, was seen by ET.

In the 2010 auction, Qualcomm had paid $1 billion for 20Mhz of BWA, or 4G spectrum, in the 2,300 Mhz frequency. Qualcomm had acquired an ISP licence corresponding to the airwaves and Airtel now wants to merge the ISP permit with its UASL. To buttress its argument, Bharti Airtel has cited the notice inviting application (NIA) clause of the 2010 spectrum auction, which did not require a UASL permit holder to pay entry fee for acquiring BWA spectrum.

The entry fee for a pan-India UASL is Rs 1,651 crore and DoT has computed the corresponding fee for the four circles that Airtel has sought the merger for. Since the airwaves were purchased by Qualcomm in 2010, the current market price for the airwaves is computed by indexing the SBI prime lending rates to the current year.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=UASL,Qualcomm,DoT,Department of Telecommunications,Bharti Airtel

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