The Hindu : Cabinet nod for unified phone licence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 01, 2003

Front Page

Front Page

Cabinet nod for unified phone licence

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 31. The Union Cabinet today approved all the recommendations of the Group of Ministers on Telecom for the unification of cellular and basic phone licences.

Chaired by the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the meeting also approved the draft of the notice to be issued to Reliance Industries asking it to pay a penalty for offering cellular mobile services when it only had a licence for WLL(M), the limited mobility service.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had recommended that the penalty amount, to be paid from April 2001, when it was granted the licence, be fixed at Rs. 485 crores. This would be in addition to Rs. 1,100 crores the company would have to pay when it migrates to the unified licensing regime. The migration fee is the difference between the entry fee for the fourth cellular operator and the entry fee already paid by the WLL (M) companies.

Announcing the decision, the Minister for Telecommunication, Arun Shourie, said the Cabinet also decided to promulgate an ordinance for the establishment of a universal service obligation fund for providing support to various service providers for the operation and maintenance of public telephones in rural areas and for expanding the coverage of rural telephony and basic telephone services as stipulated in the National Telecom Policy of 1999. The ordinance is being promulgated as a Bill, which was introduced in the last session of Parliament but could not be passed for want of time. The Bill is now under the consideration of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology.

The Cabinet, he said, also discussed at length the issue of the Convergence Bill, but deferred a decision as it was felt that there was a need for more discussion. Likewise, the issue of FDI in the telecom sector was discussed in detail and it was decided that the Finance Minister would examine it. The entire transition of the telecom sector to the unified licensing regime was expected to be complete in six months, Mr. Shourie said, adding that it would help in accelerating the growth of the telecom market by promoting competition. At present, about 1.3 million new subscribers are added every month and this rate is expected to double in the next six months.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News Update

Stories in this Section

Supreme Court frowns on appointment of bureaucrat as Competition Commission head

Cabinet nod for unified phone licence

16 hurt in J&K grenade attack

Semmangudi passes away

LTTE submits proposals