Trai cracks down on 2G graft

Recommends canceling of 62 licences granted

PTI | November 18, 2010



Telecom regulatory authority of India (Trai) has recommended cancellation of 34 telecom licences of companies, including Etisalat, Uninor, Loop and Siestema, due to non-compliance of roll-out obligations.

The telecom regulator has also recommended cancellation of further 28 licences of operators, including Etisalat, Loop and Videocon, for improper rollout of services.

Of the 62 telecom licences recommended to be cancelled, 34 are for missing out on roll-out obligations, while the other 28 are for improper roll-out.

As per Trai report, licences of Etisalat in two circles, eight telecom circles of Uninor, licences in ten circles of Sistema and 14 telecom licences of Loop were recommended to be cancelled for missing roll-out deadline.

As per the conditions of licence, the licencees are required to roll-out the services in 90 per cent service area in metros and 10 per cent district headquarters in other service areas within 12 months of the date of award of licences.

For improper roll-out, licences of Etisalat in 13 circles, Videocon in 10 circles and licences of Loop in five were recommended for cancellation.

This may spell more trouble for the beleaguered Telecom Minister, A Raja, who is facing allegations of causing huge revenue loss due to non-auction of 2G spectrum (radio waves), given to nine operators in 2008.

Raja resigned earlier this week owing to pressure following his indictment by government auditor CAG on allocation of 2G licences and spectrum (air waves).

The CAG report said that DoT also did not do the requisite due diligence in the examination of the applications submitted for the licences, leading to the grant of 85 out of 122 licences to the "ineligible applicants" (who did not have stipulated paid-up capital at the time of application).

Further, 45 out of 85 licencees were issued to companies which failed to satisfy conditions of main object clause in the memorandum of Association (MoA), CAG had said in the report, tabled in Parliament on November 16.

The auditor also said one of the licencees Swan appeared to act as a "front company" on behalf of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Telecom.

The Anil Ambani group has, however, said it had no shareholding in Swan at the time of grant of licence or any time thereafter.

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