Telcos meet Sibal again over 3G roaming, spectrum issues

The chief executives of India's top five telecommunication firms today held yet another meeting with union telecom minister Kapil Sibal and other senior members of the government to sort out numerous unresolved issues relating to the sector.

These include the government proposal seeking a relatively steep one-time fee for 2G spectrum while de-linking spectrum from operating licences; as well as the row over governmental departments disallowing 3G roaming through spectrum sharing.

''All the operators conveyed their views on various issues and these are also part of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations on spectrum pricing and framework. The minister will take a final call soon,'' department of telecommunications (DoT) secretary R Chandrasekhar said after the meeting.

There have been several brainstorming sessions between the government and telecom operators over the last few months. The operators had met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, Sibal, and other cabinet ministers on 30 November.

Among those involved in today's meeting were Anil Ambani of Reliance Communications, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel, Kumar Mangalam Birla of Idea Cellular, Vodafone Essar chief executive Marten Pieters and Airtel's Sanjay Kapoor, as also other industry officials.

One of the more recent issues facing the sector is a department of telecommunications (DoT) proposal of a one-time fee for 2G spectrum in excess of 4.4 MHz for GSM operators and over 2.5 MHz in the case of CDMA players.