Telecom tussle: The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram decided to impose a one-time fee on mobile operators holding spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz, a step which is expected to fetch over Rs 10,000 crore to the exchequer. This will be in excess of Rs 27,000 crore surcharge that the EGoM had last week decided to impose on GSM carriers having spectrum in excess of 4.4 MHz and CDMA operators with 2.5 MHz airwaves.

Meanwhile, telecom Telecom biggies like Airtel , Vodafone, Videocon and Tata Teleservices have applied to bid in the upcoming spectrum auction. However, Reliance Industries and Russia's Sistema surprised by staying away from the.