The meeting of Empowered Group of Ministers on Telecom, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, to decide on the issue of one-time fee on spectrum held by existing telecom operators has begun. In July, the Cabinet had referred the matter to EGoM for obtaining its view. Later in the month, EGoM had deferred a decision on the matter till the outcome of Presidential Reference.Following the Supreme Court's opinion on the Presidential Reference, the government is now free to take a decision in this regard.

The DoT had made four proposals to the Cabinet on one-time fee – no charge; levy a one-time fee on all airwaves held by existing telecom companies; impose a fee on airwaves held beyond the start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz; or levy a fee on airwaves held beyond the contracted spectrum of 6.2 MHz.

According to a top DoT official, the department added the option of one-time auction-determined price for all spectrum held by the operators to create a level-playing field between new entrants and and existing players.Existing players were allocated pan-India permits with 4.4 Mhz of airwaves frequencies at price of 1,658 crore rupees but new telecom operators will have to pay a minimum of 14,000 crore rupees for similar set of airwaves for pan-India business in auction that are scheduled to start in November.