DoT's licence norms may be tougher

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is looking at allowing two or three more pan-India telecom operators on stricter entry criteria as part of the new guidelines for allocation of Universal Access Service Licence (UASL).

Among the new guidelines under discussion, DoT is looking at raising the net worth criterion of companies applying for a pan-India UASL licence from Rs 1,380 crore to Rs 1,500 crore.

These and other guidelines are being considered by a DoT internal committee that is expected to finalise the new criteria for UASL applications in 10 days. Yesterday, Communications Minister A Raja announced a deadline of October 1 for new UASL applicants.

To ensure that only serious players are in contention, DoT is also looking at reducing the time allowed for operators to convert their letters of intent to licences to less than a week against the current 90-day period.

In simple terms, this means that applicants that are cleared for UASL will now have to pay the licence fee within a week of the award.

To this end, DoT is also planning to give preference in spectrum allocation to companies that apply for a pan-Indian licence over those that plan to operate only in some of the country's 22 telecom circles.

It is also considering offering spectrum on a "first-come, first-served basis" to the company that pays its licence fee the earliest.

India currently has five pan-India mobile service providers. Some 140 applications are pending for UASLs, which allow service providers to offer both CDMA and GSM mobile technologies.

Meanwhile, Mumbai-based IndiaBulls is also expected to put in an application for a pan-India UASL and US telecom giant AT&T is actively looking for a partner to apply for one as well.

A new call for mobile telephony
(DoT mulls fresh guidelines for licence allocation)

Only two or three more pan-India telecom operators to be considered

Net worth criterion for pan-India UASL applicants to be raised from Rs 1,380 crore to Rs 1,500 crore

Licence fee to be paid within a week of licence award instead of the current 90 days

Spectrum to be allocated on first-come, first-served basis