By IANS
New Delhi : In a move to give a boost to the explosive growth of telecom in India, the government approved the industry regulator’s recommendation Friday, removing the limit on the number of service providers in a particular network area.
“The recommendations of the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) that there should be no cap on the number of access providers in any service area has been considered by the government and has been accepted,” said an official statement.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) also said the grant of license for wireless services would depend on the availability of radio waves or spectrum, as they are referred to in the telecom parlance.
The government also accepted one of TRAI’s landmark recommendations that the scarce spectrum should be allocated to the telecom operators on the basis of the number of subscribers.
“The government has accepted the TRAI’s recommendation of enhanced subscriber linked criterion for frequency allocation,” the DoT said, adding that it has also set up a committee under the aegis of the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) to further study the proposal and give a report to the government.
This move by the DoT will affect the existing GSM players such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular.
It also said spectrum allotment beyond 10 MHz would be charged Rs.160 million, Rs.80 million, Rs.30 million for Category A, Category B and Category C service areas, respectively.
“The existing UAS (Unified Access Services) licensees, who have already applied for allocation of spectrum for alternate technology, shall also be considered for allocation of spectrum in alternate technology from the date of payment of prescribed fee,” the DoT said.
The DoT said a separate guideline would be issued on the issue of the mergers and acquisitions.