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Pay 16,000cr for extra spectrum: Trai to telcos Shalini Singh TNN New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday submitted fresh recommendations on 2G spectrum pricing,steeply raising the estimated value of spectrum beyond 6.2MHz held by incumbent operators.Telecom industry sources said this could result in a hit of Rs 16,000 crore to existing operators,including Rs 6,000 crore to BSNL,Rs 4,000 crore to Bharti,Rs 1,743 crore to Vodafone and Rs 70 crore to Reliance Communications. The proposals are bound to cause further infighting in the deeply divided industry.However,telecom minister Kapil Sibal in a TV interview said they were acceptable to him as they were largely in line with the stand he announced recently. The report was prepared by four well-known academics outside Trai.They have come up with various estimates of the value of 2G spectrum. Going by Trais new pricing benchmarks,the estimate of the loss caused to the exchequer in the 2G scam could be below CAGs estimate of Rs 1.76 lakh crore.Unlike Trai,CAG has said all start-up spectrum given after 2008 should be subject to a market price,not just spectrum given beyond 6.2MHz.

ANKIT  KUMAR

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