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Vodafone India on Thursday filed a petition in the high court at Delhi, challenging the department of telecommunications’ refusal to extend its licences in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata on their scheduled expiry in November next year.
“DoT arbitrarily rejected the applications without due consideration of the substantive points raised. Accordingly, Vodafone is constrained to take legal recourse...as this can cause grave inconvenience to millions of customers in these three circles,” the company said.
Last month, DoT refused to extend the second largest telecom operator’s licences in these three circles, due for renewal in 2014. The company has 25.6 million customers in the three circles combined. The licences were obtained in 1994 with a 20-year validity.
“Vodafone believes it has the right to extension as both, applicable policy (National Telecom Policy ‘99) and licence, provide for extension and continuity...The 900 Mhz and 1,800 MHz spectrum allocated to Vodafone is embedded in the licence and extension necessarily means the extension of embedded spectrum,” the company said on Thursday.
After the 2G scam in 2010, and the subsequent cancellation of licences that belong to 2008 licencees, the government has been mulling auction of licences and spectrum. Vodafone however believes that the decision to extend these licences has already been taken by the department.
A decision to retain its licences has already been communicated to the company, in a decision taken in February 2012. ‘The DoT already communicated that the validity of existing mobile licences may be extended for another 10 years at one time, as per the provisions of the extant licensing regime with suitable terms and conditions. Thus, the decision to extend licenses has already been taken by DoT and it is only the terms and conditions of extension that are to be decided,” Vodafone said.
This will be the second time that the company will be going to Delhi High Court on the matter. The company had applied for licence extension of these three circles in December last year. As no decision was came from the department for several months, the company filed a petition for consideration of their licence applications. “The Honourable High Court directed DOT to consider the extension applications and give Vodafone an effective hearing,” the company said.
Vodafone also said that is willing to pay a fair and reasonable price for its licence extension. “It has already invested thousands of crores to build a country wide network and services millions of customers on the basis of trust that the Government as a sovereign entity, adheres to the principles of equity and fair play and acts in good faith for public good and in larger public interest,” the company said.
