The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has increased the number of licences to be cancelled over the operators? inability to meet roll-out obligations from 74 to 83.
The regulator plans to provide the operators with 60 days to respond and a final decision (on licence cancellation) will be taken after the Attorney General of India provides his views on the issue.
Prior to this, Kapil Sibal, Minister of Telecommunications and IT, planned to issue show-cause notices to the 74 licensees who were unable to meet roll-out obligations. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had decided to cancel only eight licences for failure of the operator to meet rollout obligations, as against TRAI?s recommendation that 69 licences be cancelled.
In so far, Aircel (for two circles), Dishnet (for three circles), Etisalat (for two circles) and Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (for one circle) were issued show-cause notices for cancellation of licences.
DoT was reluctant to cancel more than these eight licences, as it disagreed with TRAI on the definition of the term ?rollout obligations?.
Rollout obligations are one of the key licence conditions, as it is an indication of how far and how soon an operator rolls out the network.
Prior to this, in November 2010, TRAI had asked DoT to cancel 69 licences granted by former Minister of Telecommunications and IT, A. Raja, on grounds of violation of rollout obligations.
TRAI had said 38 of the 69 licences were to be cancelled immediately, while the remaining 31should be scrutinised carefully by DoT, on grounds of non-utilisation of spectrum and resultant loss of revenue to the exchequer.
