The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is planning to seek the Ministry of Law’s opinion on ambiguity related to 19 licences granted to Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) on the same date as the now-cancelled 122 licences but under a different set of rules.
As per the recent Supreme Court order, the licences granted to private respondents on or after January 10, 2008 were cancelled and subsequent allocation of spectrum to the licencees was declared illegal.
In October 2007, TTSL had requested government to convert its CDMA permits into dual-technology licences to allow the operator to offer GSM services as well. In response, the government had awarded additional 19 GSM licences to TTSL. However, the announcement of granting licences was done through the same press release that notified award of 122 licences, on January 10, 2008.
The press release issued by the DoT in 2008, which is now rendered void by the apex court, had asked all companies that had applied for fresh mobile permits before September 25, 2007, to collect their respective letters of intent (LoIs). This also included companies that had sought dual technology licenses. Subsequently, TTSL was issued LoIs for its permits on January 10, 2008.
