Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, RCom surge as telecom panel roots for 3% spectrum usage fee

Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication shares surged in Wednesday’s trade after Telecom Commission on Tuesday stood by its decision to levy 3 per cent spectrum usage charge (SUC) of adjusted gross revenue on telecom operators.

At 12.02 pm, shares of Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications were trading up 2.22 per cent, 0.52 per cent and 2.07 per cent.

Later, shares of Reliance Communications ended 1.65 per cent up at Rs 49.20, Bharti Airtel closed 0.93 per cent up at Rs 352.40 and Idea Cellular settled 0.19 per cent down at Rs 105.15. The BSE telecom index ended 0.74 per cent up or 9.45 points.

The panel also decided that the payout for carriers in any case will be not be lower than what they are currently paying at the existing rate to prevent loss of revenue to the government.

Reuters report quoting a prominent business daily said the spectrum usage fee for all the airwaves owned by Bharti Airtel will fall to 3.74 per cent from 4.9 per cent of revenue currently.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended SUC at a uniform rate of 3 per cent across the industry and gradually bringing it to 1 per cent.

Before 2010, there was only 2G spectrum and hence, calculation of revenue was easy. But the process became complex after new frequencies were allocated to companies for services like 3G and 4G.

IDEA Cellular Limited

Reliance Communications (RCOM)