The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has said that the process of issuing notices to over 35 licensees will be completed by March 2012.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had asked DoT to impose a penalty and cancel 65 new licences over the operators’ failure to roll out services within the stipulated timeframe.
DoT has been issuing notices to firms on two grounds, their ineligibility to obtain licences and missing roll-out obligations.
Prior to this, DoT had already issued 15 notices to new telecom companies out of the 65 recommended by TRAI.
All of these companies were among the 122 licences identified by TRAI, with respect to missing roll-out obligations and the ineligibility of the operator to obtain a licence.
The cancellations pertain to licences issued in 2008 by A. Raja, former Minister of Telecommunications and IT. Moreover, DoT has already collected over Rs 3 billion in liquidated damages from various new operators for not rolling out services within the time stipulated by licence conditions.
According to the conditions, the operators have to cover 10 per cent of district headquarters within a telecom circle within the first year of allotment of spectrum.
After expiry of another 52 weeks, after claiming liquidated damages, the licences can be cancelled in case the services are not rolled out as per licence conditions.
