India's Telecom Commission has approved the Department of Telecom proposal to charge new 3G entrants 3% of their aggregate annual revenue in spectrum license fees.

Under the scheme operators expanding 3G will also be charged an extra 1% of their annual revenues to cover the license fees, according to India's Economic Times.

2G operators will also see their license fees raised, with operators that hold less than 8MHz of spectrum being charged an extra 1% of their annual revenue, and the rest charged an extra 2%.

Meanwhile, the government's 2G spectrum allocation policy could be scrutinised in court. The Delhi High Court has informed the government that it has received a petition challenging the controversial first-come-first-served allocation policy.

The court has given the government three weeks to respond. The case is due in court on December 10.

The petition alleges that the procedure the government has adopted is not transparent, and was instituted for the benefit of certain major industry players.

In more Indian news, Telenor's new acquisition Unitech Wireless will not participate in the upcoming 3G spectrum auction, and will instead concentrate on launching 2G services next year, according to Telenor's CEO, who told PTI the company has no plans to enter the Indian 3G market in the next three years.

And the government has announced that the optical fibre cable link between India and Pakistan is set to be functional by next year.

Source:telecomasia.net