By IANS
New Delhi : Seeking to end the controversy surrounding the entry of new players in the fast-growing mobile telephone market in India, the government Thursday decided to issue licences to all new aspiring companies.
“The government has accepted the recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI),” an official statement here said, referring to the watchdog’s proposal that no cap be placed on the number of mobile service providers.
Accordingly, the department of telecommunications (DOT) has decided to issue letters of intent to all applicants who applied up to Sep 25, 2007, the statement added.
Ministry officials said some of the companies that will be eligible for licences include Unitech, Swan Communication, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications, Himachal Futuristic, Datacom Solutions and Idea Cellular.
Under a new policy unveiled in December 2005, called the unified access services licences scheme, India will allow a telecom operator to roll services using any technology, wire-line or wireless, based on GSM or CDMA technology platforms.
The licence, however, does not automatically authorise the licence holder to use the allotted radio frequency spectrum to roll out mobile service. The policy requires them to obtain another operator licence.
The controversy arose since radio frequency is scarce and the policy, based on a first-come-first-serve basis, was challenged by many of the existing and potential players.
The companies allotted the letters of intent will have to pay a licence fee of Rs.16 billion for a pan-India licence and await allocation of spectrum from the Planning and Coordination Wing of the ministry, officials said.
“The same priority that applies for the licence will also apply for the queue for spectrum allocation. Of course, it will also depend on the availability of frequency,” a ministry official said.