Bharti Airtel has raised issues over the Department of Telecommunications? (DoT) decision to collect a fee of Rs 4.36 billion for the migration of the internet service provider (ISP) licence of its subsidiary, Airtel Broadband Services Private Limited (ABSPL) to the unified licensing regime.
Earlier, Bharti Airtel had sought DoT?s approval for the merger of ABSPL?s ISP licence with its unified access service licence (UASL) across four circles. Following DoT?s decision for the new entry fee, Airtel has argued that as it already holds UASL across the Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala circles, which it had acquired after paying the applicable entry fee, the company should not be required to pay the entry fee for ABSPL?s licence.
Airtel has also stated that the non-applicability of any new entry fee is supported by the facts that the notice inviting applications for 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum are governed by their licence agreement. Further, the company has argued that the current M&A guidelines also allow the merger of ISP licence with UASL.
