Aspirants get restive over licence delay

The issue of allotment of spectrum for mobile services has taken a new turn with some aspirants asking the government to immediately issue licences under the existing policy and threatening to explore legal options in case of delay.

The development comes at a time when the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is grappling with the battle between CDMA operators, notably Reliance Communications, and GSM players like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Essar over allocation of airwaves to expand services.

"It is strange the government has not issued LoIs (Letters of Intent) to the waiting applicants... It is contrary to the New Telecom Policy, UASL (Unified Access Service Licence) guidelines and even the Cabinet decision that LoIs be issued on a non-exclusive basis," HFCL Managing Director Mahendra Nahata said.