Trai, DoT differences deepens over licence cancellation issue -Governance Now

Trai, DoT differences deepens over licence cancellation issue

Trai has asked the DoT to give licence-wise reasons for considering only 15 cases out of 69.

PTI | May 26, 2011

Amid differences over number of new licences liable to be cancelled for not meeting roll-out obligations, telecom regulator Trai has asked the DoT to give licence-wise reasons for considering only 15 cases out of 69.

Confirming receipt of a letter from the Telecom Ministry, Trai Chairman J S Sarma said, "We have received the letter, we have examined it and have written back to them (DoT) to give us the case-wise (that is the licence-wise) details as to why they are saying that certain things cannot be (taken into account) because what we got was category-wise comment."

Trai had last year recommended to DoT that as many as 69 new licences are fit for cancellation for not meeting the network roll-out obligations within stipulated time, whereas the Telecom Ministry reduced it to 15 licences.

"So we have requested them (DoT) to provide us their details of each licence and also, if the legal opinion if any.

So we are awaiting the reply. As soon as we receive information we will respond," Sarma added.

The cancellations pertain to licences issued in 2007-08 by former telecom minister A Raja, who was sacked last year as he was accused of selling licences and spectrum cheaply, possibly costing the government billions of dollars in revenue.

As of now the DoT have sent 10 notices on account of delay in network rollout and the remaining five are in the process. The DoT would give 60 days to each telecom operator to respond to the showcause notice, asking why their permits not be cancelled.

Cancellation comes even as the Telecom Ministry has levied and collected over Rs 300 crore as liquidated damages from all the new telecom operators.

Some of the players have petitioned telecom tribunal TDSAT challenging DoT's decision to penalise them, but paid the penalty under protest.

Among the 69 cases identified by Trai, some of the players had not rolled out any network while some had done it partially.

DoT and Trai have differed in view of the former saying that only date of allocation of spectrum should be considered as zero-date and only after a lapse of 104 weeks from that date a licence can be cancelled for not meeting the roll-out obligations.

According to licence terms and conditions, an operator is required to cover 10 per cent of a circle covered in the first year.

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