Indian telecom companies have decided to take legal action against the government following the telecomm department's notice of one-time fee payment on the existing airwaves, according to a new report.
The Economic Times reported that the country's leading mobile phone companies are taking serious note of the government's latest decision and are planning to approach court to resolve the issue. GSM operators of the companies have already received the notice from the telecom department asking for the one-time pay of existing dues.
"The notices have come. Individual operators will be moving the court soon on this," Rajan Mathews, director-general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, the industry body representing GSM operators, told The Economic Times.
It was also reported that the "Executives with leading operators also confirmed that they were readying their legal challenges, a move that is set to add to the uncertainty prevailing in this litigation-prone sector."
The order for the CDMA is expected in the coming days. Earlier in December, the chief executive officers of leading mobile phone companies, namely Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor, Idea Cellular MD Himanshu Kapania and Vodafone India MD and CEO Marten Pieters had informed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the "one-time charge violated terms of the licence, breached the bilateral settlement the government had reached with the industry in 2002 and also contradicted the statement made by the ministry on the floor of Parliament."
