Fresh DoT guidelines for new licences: Raja

 Raja said considering the huge number of applications, there was a need to form new norms to issue licences.

 There are about 140 new proposals from various companies seeking universal access service licences to provide services across the country, the world's fastest-growing telecom market. Recently, even real estate players such as Parsvnath Developers and Unitech applied for licences.

Raja said the grant of licences would be subject to availability of spectrum and new guidelines. "All the applications will be scrutinised and limited applications will be selected," he said.

DoT sources said the committee would also look into the actual shareholding of the new applicants to see if existing companies were seeking licences as proxy to bypass laws. Cellular Operators Association of India, a lobby of GSM players, has already written to DoT asking it to scrutinise applicants who, it alleged, could be front operations of big corporates.