The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) of the government of India has imposed a one-time fee on CDMA telecom operators in the country for holding spectrum beyond that was allotted to them.

The DoT has asked the companies to pay the fine amounting to about Rs. 3,033 crore as they hold more airwaves that allotted by the government. It said in an order that all CDMA players holding more than 2.5 Mhz in 800 Mhz band will have to pay the one-time fee from 01-01-2013. The order also said that the charge will be imposed on additional spectrum for the remaining license period.

The DoT also said that the telecom service providers who are not willing to pay the one-time fees will have to surrender the additional spectrum above2.5 Mhz. It has announced the one time spectrum fee for each megahertz of frequencies on the basis of the reserve price from the auction on March 11.

The officials said that Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Sistema Shyam (SSTL), BSNL and MTNL are among the telecom players who hold more than 2.5 Megahertz (Mhz) of spectrum in some circles. Following the cutting of the base price by a senior government panel, the one-time fee is expected to be Rs 1,752 for Reliance Communications and Rs 1,155 crore for Tata Teleservices.