Cellular firms await single licence norms

The Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) decided to wait for the government to come out with detailed guidelines on an unified licence regime before finalising its future course of action.

The COAI executive council, which met for more than two hours today, also decided not to take any legal recourse against the government's decision to unify cellular and basic licences. Instead, it decided to focus on the negotiations for compensation with the finance ministry.

Cellular operators are claiming a monetary compensation of Rs 18,000 crore for the government's violation of licence conditions in allowing an unified licence.

"We have decided to await the final guidelines on unified licence to be issued by the department of telecom. We need to know the finer details of the new regime before we can formulate our stand on the matter," TV Ramachandran, director-general, COAI, said.

However, COAI has decided not to withdraw its appeal, filed in the Supreme Court, on the wireless-in-local-loop (WLL) limited mobility issue. The appeal was filed by cellular operators after the telecom disputes tribunal allowed basic operators to offer limited mobility services. The apex court is scheduled to take up the case tomorrow.

Industry analysts pointed out that the case does not hold water in the wake of the government's decision to allow limited mobility operators to migrate to full mobility.

They said even if the Supreme Court ruled against the offering of limited mobility services it might not have any impact as most big operators like Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices would have migrated to the new regime.

Cellular operators, however, said a judgment in their favour would be a moral victory.

Ramachandran said COAI would now wait for the finance ministry to call it to discuss the compensation issue. The COAI would also demand an increase in the foreign direct investment ceiling in the telecom sector from 49 per cent to 74 per cent.

They will also seek permission for debt restructuring and a direct handshake between cellular operators for offering STD services without going through a long-distance operator.