TRAI’s recommendation may lead to an spike in call charges across India. This was revealed by Uninor’s Managing Director Sigve Brekke at Patna
“It will definitely impact the telecom sector in a negative way, if the government accepts the TRAI recommendation on the spectrum auction… mobile users will end up paying more as call charges,” Sigve Brekke said.
Norway’s Telenor holds 67.25 per cent stake in the Uninor while the balance is held by realty major Unitech. If TRAI’s recommendations were to be implemented by the government, mobile call tariffs could easily rise by up to 100 per cent, he said. Brekke slammed the telecom regulator for allegedly not complying with a Supreme Court order on spectrum auction giving opportunity for the present licence holders to bid back their licences.
“Uninor has maintained that these recommendations do not follow the Supreme Court order that allowed the new operators to win back their licences and the spectrum to continue their operations in the market,” Brekke said.
He also said Uninor would like to stay and compete in India if it manages to win licences and spectrum in the auction. “If the auction rules allow a new operator such as ourselves to win licences and spectrum on fair terms, we would certainly want to remain and compete in India,”