Bharti Airtel has filed a petition with the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) seeking an extension of its licences in the Delhi and Kolkata circles. The operators? licences in these two circles are set to expire in 2014.
The operator has approached TDSAT with the request to extend its licences even though the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has decided not to renew the operators? licences. DoT has decided that the operators whose licences are due to expire in 2014 will have to buy back spectrum through auctions scheduled in January 2014.
However, Bharti Airtel along with a few other incumbent players, have stated that licencing rules allow them to seek automatic extension of their existing licences. Bharti Airtel has stated that it is willing to participate in the forthcoming spectrum auction and pay the market-determined price for the spectrum allocated to it. However, the operator has maintained that the licencing agreement between DoT and the operator guarantees the extension of the company?s licences along with the allocated spectrum.
Earlier both the DoT and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had rejected the proposal of reserving spectrum for incumbent players on the grounds that this would amount to a non-playing field for the new entrants.
