No Increase in 3G Charges says Indian Government

An Indian Cabinet panel has decided not to increase the annual charges levied on bandwidth from companies offering second-generation mobile services, even after they start providing third-generation services, the federal junior minister for communications said today.

Currently, mobile operators in India operators pay between 2% and 6% of their adjusted gross revenue to the government as annual spectrum charges. Separately, the minister said the defense ministry had released two lots of spectrum, or 10MHz, for 3G services in May 2009.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that state-run telco; Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is negotiating the price for procuring telecom equipment from the Indian unit of L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. The network kit will cover the northern regions of India the junior Minister for Communications Gurudas Kamat told Parliament yesterday.

BSNL had earlier issued tenders for sourcing telecom equipment to add 93 million new connections to its mobile-phone network.