Telcos withdraw plea to tribunal over 2G plan

Mobile operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar on Tuesday withdrew their plea to the telecom tribunal over the regulator's proposals to slap new fees on second-generation (2G) spectrum, a lawyer said. Petitions filed by leading operators seeking to overturn the sector regulator's proposals to slap new fees on 2G spectrum has been withdrawn, C.A. Sundaram, one of the lawyers representing the operators, told reporters. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) earlier this month called for firms to pay a one-time fee for 2G radio-spectrum with high bandwidth they won several years ago based on 3G spectrum price, a move that could see established operators paying billions of dollars.