At the behest of the prime minister’s office (PMO), the telecommunication department has sought

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details of service rollouts by 11 companies that bagged 2G spectrum and unified access services (UAS) licences since 2006.

The directive sent out last Friday seeks details of services offered and sectors, areas and states covered along with dates.

The companies are Idea Cellular, Spice, Aircel, Vodafone Essar, Etisalat DB, Singapore Telecom, Sistema Shyam, Unitech, Videocon Telecom, Tata Teleservices and Loop Telecom.

The exercise will help the PMO prepare a dossier on the services offered by the companies in the light of the opposition charge that 2G spectrum was allocated at

throwaway prices in January 2008.

Already, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the comptroller and auditor- general and the central vigilance commission are separately investigating the allocation to nine companies that had paid at Rs 1,658 crore each for pan-India licences.

The opposition has levelled charges that the licences were undersold by as much as Rs 60,000 crore and pointed a finger at telecom minister A Raja.

On his part, Raja has called the chiefs of 15 telecom companies to a meeting in the capital on Wednesday.

Among the ‘recent issues’ to be discussed is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommendation for levying an additional one-time charge on 2G spectrum holders. The government’s ban on use of Chinese equipment in the telecom industry and the future expansion plans for the sector may also come up.

Most telecom operators, including market leader Bharti Airtel, have opposed the one-time levy, which is aimed at making 2G spectrum holders pay the ‘right’ price for it.

It was only after the 3G auctions yielded Rs 67,719 crore for the government that protests were voiced that 2G had earlier been sold dirt cheap.

Trai’s recommendation is that the companies should pay an additional one-time charge for the spectrum they hold beyond the committed spectrum. Operators holding 2G spectrum over 6.2 Mhz should pay a charge linked to the 3G prices. This will be equal to the current price of spectrum up to 8 Mhz. Beyond this, the charge will be 1.3 times the current price, according to the Trai recommendation. The new levy will bring Rs 25,000 crore in extra revenue to the government.