Spectrum trading: SC stays TDSAT order, relief to RCom

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court Friday stayed the telecom tribunal’s order that upheld a clause in the spectrum trading guidelines, which, if enforced, would have meant Reliance Communications may have needed to pay nearly Rs 4000 crore to the government as bandwidth related fees for its airwave sale to Reliance Jio to be cleared.The issue started when RCom moved Telecom Disputes Settlements and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) with the petition to quash clause 8 of telecom department’s spectrum trading guideline. The clause states that an operator who wants to trade its spectrum bought in the 2013 auction has to pay the difference in that price and the latest auction price.The clause 8 stated, “trading of spectrum shall be permitted only if the differential of the latest auction price and the March 2013 auction price on pro-rata basis on the balance period of right to use the spectrum is paid”.For RCom, the latest ruling is important since it is trading 800 MHz airwave to Jio as part of its asset monetization process and for the sale to be cleared by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), it would have had to pay around Rs 4000 crore. Those airwaves had come into RCom’s kitty when the Anil Ambani owned telco bought Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) in a share swap deal in 2017.RCom shares ended 3.5% higher at Rs19.18 on the BSE Friday.SSTL had acquired those 800 MHz airwaves in eight out of 22 circles in the auctions of 2013. Post its merger with RCom, the assets and liabilities of SSTL, including the licenses and spectrum held by SSTL, were transferred to the Anil Ambani-owned telco.RCom had filed a case in the TDSAT alleging that DoT was attempting to extort the money from the operator as a condition for allowing trading of its spectrum acquired through auction in March 2013. After the tribunal ruled in DoT’s favour on August 3, the company moved apex court.On Friday, the SC issued a notice to DoT and stayed TDSAT’s previous order.Rcom expects to raise some Rs 18,000 crore by selling the wireless assets to Jio and real estate assets to Canada’s Brookfield, and reduce its Rs46,000 crore-debt by repaying its 39 lenders.A week ago, it said it will sell an additional around 65 MHz spectrum in the 800 MHz band to Jio for around Rs3,500-Rs3,700 crore which will help in bringing down the Anil Ambani-owned telco's debt further.

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