BSNL is planning to surrender its Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum in 17 circles and hopes to get back a refund of Rs 8,313.80 crores. BSNL incurred a loss of over Rs 6,000 crore for 2010-11 because of high staff cost and payments made for acquiring 3G and BWA spectrum.
The company had paid over Rs 8,500 crore to the Government as spectrum charges while bidding for the BWA auction, and was allotted non-standardised band of BWA spectrum for 21 circles. Now BSNL is said to have written a letter to the Department of Telecom (DoT) seeking to return BWA spectrum in 17 circles and wants to certain circles including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana service areas.
According to sources, the letter stated that “BSNL was allotted non-standardised band of BWA and can’t be put in use, so the company wants to return. The department will now take a look and may consider an option to re-auction the spectrum also if possible.”