India's telecom operators have remained unflinching in their objection to the government's proposals to take back spectrum in the 900MHz band, replacing it with 1800MHz wavelengths.
In a meeting with the Department of Telecom yesterday, GSM operators also refused to budge on their resistance to regulator Trai's plan to charge a one-time fee for existing 2G spectrum, the Economic Timessaid.
By contrast, CDMA operators have demanded the fee be raised to four times the 3G access price.
Trai has proposed charging a one-time fee for operators owning more than 6.2MHz of 2G spectrum per circle. The fee would be linked to the prices set in the recent 3G auction.
If pushed through, the plan will see operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea lumped with a 10.5 billion rupee ($224.8 million) one-time charge.
A nine-member panel has been set up by the DoT plans to study the operators' demands, and suggest possible changes to the interim proposals.
MORE ARTICLES ON BHARTI AIRTEL, DOT, IDEA, INDIA, SPECTRUM AUCTION, TRAI, VODAFONE