Honest 836 Report post Posted December 15, 2006 (edited) TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2006 01:38:33 AM] NEW DELHI: Maxis Communications, which owns 74% stake in Indian mobile operator Aircel Cellular, has paid $300 million to the government towards entry fee for licenses in 14 circles in the country. According to sources, the payment, which is inclusive of the bank guarantees, was submitted to the Department of Telecommunications on December 11. Aircel Cellular, which has over 4 million subscribers, holds licenses to offer cellular services in nine circles, and has applied for licenses for the other 14. These 14 circles, for which Maxis has paid the entry fee, are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West, Kolkata, Kerala, Haryana and Punjab. While Maxis did not disclose the amount submitted towards entry fee, sources said the company had paid $300 million. When contacted on the issue, Maxis Communications's Group CEO Datto Jamaludin Ibraham told ET, “The payments were made towards accepting the DoT's letters of intent for unified access service licenses in the 14 circles and also for national and international long distance licenses. On obtaining the licenses for the 14 new circles, Aircel would be able to operate in all the 23 telecom circles in India. DoT sources said the government will issue Aircel with licenses for seven telecom circles — Mumbai, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh service areas in the first phase, while the remaining seven will be issued in the second phase. Recently, Aircel Group CEO Jagdish Kini had told ET that the company would have a pan-Indian presence with operations in all 23 circles by 2008-end or first quarter of 2009, while adding that the that the roll-out would largely depend on the spectrum availability in the new circles. According to Mr Kini, Aircel would be looking at the sharing of cellular towers and other related infrastructure with other operators in the new circles it planed to launch operations. "This will enable us to reduce both our capex and opex — we want to share infrastructure with existing players once we start rolling out pan-India operations. We would like to strike a strategic alliance on cell sites-sharing," he had said. All my dear friends be ready to greet this new operator in your city soon ! Cheers. Edited December 15, 2006 by Honest Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
