License Call For Five Next Week

[coolrajiv 1]

Source - http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071215/asp/...ory_8671548.asp

License call for five next week

New Delhi, Dec. 14: The department of telecom (DoT) is likely to issue letters of intent next week to four to five companies who want to launch pan-India mobile services.

“Seven firms yesterday furnished pre-LoI documents to the DoT, of which four to five firms, which have applied for an all-India telecom licence, will qualify to get letters of intent by next week,” said officials.

S Tel, Parsvnath Developers, Alliance Infratech, Datacom Solutions and Indiabulls are among the companies who have applied for telecom licences in all 22 circles before the government deadline of September 25, 2007.

Around 46 companies had applied for telecom licences, of which the DoT had asked 16 companies to furnish pre-LoI documents by December 13.

Apart from the pan-India licence seekers, the queue for licences is as follows: ByCell for five circles, Tata Teleservices (3), Idea Cellular (9), Spice Communications (20), Swan Telecom (2), Cheetah Corporate Services (14), HFCL (21), Ruias-owned BPL Mobile (21), Unitech (8) and Shyam Telecom (21). Companies will be given a fortnight to accept the LoIs and pay the licence fee — Rs 1,650 crore — to convert the LoIs into telecom licences and join the queue for spectrum.

The government is also planning to charge extra fees for start-up spectrum. However, with new telecom players such as S Tel willing to pay up to Rs 6,000 crore to get spectrum, money does not seem to be a barrier for entry into the fast growing telecom sector.

Moreover, new licence holders would not have to wait long to get spectrum and start commercial mobile services as the DoT already has 35MHz of spectrum to distribute among new and existing players.

Even if the DoT goes by the first come, first served policy and allocates 4.4MHz of start-up spectrum to three existing players — Idea, Aircel and Vodafone — who are waiting for spectrum to start services in various circles since December 2006, it will still be able to accommodate four entrants.

At present, Idea holds licences in two circles, Vodafone in six and Aircel in 13 circles. However, these firms have not been allocated second-generation spectrum to launch services.

A new telecom licence holder is entitled to 4.4MHz of start-up spectrum. With the telecom tribunal lifting a voluntary ban imposed by the government against issuing fresh spectrum to operators, the sector will soon see the emergence of new players.

In a letter written to the Prime Minister, communications minister A. Raja said the government still had 60-65MHz of vacant spectrum, “including spectrum likely to be vacated by defence services”.

The defence is also likely to release about 25MHz of spectrum over the next few months, which can accommodate about six new players. “This will be used to allocate spectrum to CDMA players such as Reliance Communications, HFCL and Shyam Telecom to start GSM service,” said officials.

However, big firms such as AT&T, Sterlite, Videocon, DLF, Ispat and Moser Baer — all of whom applied after September 25 — have lost out in the race to enter the fast growing telecom sector in this round.

[ravi_patent 28]

pl refer to this link

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/N...how/2623407.cms

USA aexerting pressure ...but good for us(indians)

Printed from

US joins spectrum war, tells India to take auction route

15 Dec, 2007, 0850 hrs IST,Joji Thomas Philip & G Ganapathy Subramaniam, TNN

NEW DELHI: The US government has ‘strongly recommended’ to telecom minister A Raja that India adopt the auction methodology for allotment of second generation (2G) spectrum, as this was the best solution to the ongoing war for radio frequencies in India.

Ambassador David A Gross, co-ordinator for Bush administration’s international communications & information policy, has also offered to share expertise in spectrum auctions. The US views were conveyed to Mr Raja and senior officials of the telecom department by Mr Gross who is currently on a visit to India.

“We have done several auctions. We have an upcoming auction for radio frequencies in the 700 MHz. We have offered to share our expertise. A properly designed auction is the best way to allocate and assign spectrum for mobile licences. I have strongly recommended this to Mr Raja,” the top US official told ET in an exclusive chat here on Friday. The forthcoming spectrum auction in the US is expected to generate revenue of $10 billion for the US government.

Mr Gross’ mission would boost the hopes of US telcos such as AT&T who want to enter the wireless market in India and offer both voice and data services. Under the current policy, telecom licences which come bundled with start-up 2G spectrum are awarded on a first-come-first-serve policy. Applicants such as AT&T do not stand a chance under the existing policy as they are at the rear end of the queue.

More importantly, the department of telecom is only processing the applications of those companies who have applied before September 25, 2007 despite the government announcing that the cut-off date for filing applications was October 1. This virtually rules out any possibility of companies such as AT&T and Videocon (which is learnt to be partnering US communication giant Verizon) who have applied for licenses after September 25, from entering the Indian telecom market.

During his meeting with the telecom minister, Ambassador Gross also highlighted that all applications should be given an equal chance. “Why exclude those who have applied after September 25. Excluding some companies will not aid the process. It keeps revenues out of the government treasury. It may be possible that the highest bids could be from companies who have applied after September 25. India should establish a future date and all companies who have applied before this deadline must be allowed to bid,” he added.

When asked on the Mr Raja’s response to his suggestions, Mr Gross said: “The minister understands our views”. Mr Raja has repeatedly maintained that the government would not go in for a 2G auction due to the legal barriers involved. Ambassador Gross welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement earlier this week that ‘the government must not lose sight of the revenue potential from this scarce resource.

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