The Hindu : National : New licences as per existing Telecom policy: A. Raja

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Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007
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New licences as per existing Telecom policy: A. Raja

Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI: Union Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja on Monday said new telecom licences would be issued as per the existing telecom policy that did not put any restriction on the number of operators.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Raja said: “We are going to issue new licences as per the new policy framed in 2003 by the Group of Ministers (GoM) which stated that Unified Access Service (UAS) licences will be given without any restriction.”

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had received 575 applications from more than 45 applicants seeking new licenses. However, the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI), representing GSM operators, had been opposing the move to grant new licences without addressing the issue of spectrum availability.

Mr. Raja said the National Telecom Policy of 1999 had stated that without ensuring spectrum availability, new licences should not issued.

But the new policy framed in 2003 does not put any restriction on the number of licences or spectrum availability.

He said the government had not formed any GoM to finalise a new spectrum policy.

However, a GoM has been constituted on the vacation of spectrum and raising of resources for the purpose, under the chairmanship of External Affairs Minister, he said.

On the issue of formation of a panel to review the report of the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), which was accepted in principle by the government, Mr. Raja said the committee was constituted as the COAI had alleged that calculations made by TEC were unilateral and operators’ views were not considered.

The government had accepted the recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which had increased subscriber base for allocating additional spectrum. However, following protests by existing GSM operators, DoT had asked TEC to suggest spectrum allocation norms in a scientific manner.

The TEC suggested even higher subscriber base leading to COAI challenging the recommendations, he added.

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