Govt to seek Trai's views on spectrum allocation

 The regulator may also be asked to work out the guidelines for issuing licences, including the entry fee, to new players.

 While the unified licence norms issued by the department of telecommunications last week provided for allowing new operators, it only outlined the policy for existing operators migrating to the new licence.

 The policy did not make no provision for allocation of fresh spectrum or the entry fee to be charged from new players.

 Officials in the telecom department said the process of incorporating new operators would be expedited.

 While announcing the guidelines for unified licensing, the department has said that while existing operators will migrate into the unified regime after paying an entry fee, it was considering throwing open the sector to more operators.

 The move follows fresh application from Tata Teleservices for 7 new unified licences on Wednesday.

 These included licences West Bengal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh under the unified licence regime.

 Tatas had applied for these circles last week under the basic licence system which was put on hold by the DoT on grounds that the government would accept any new applications for cellular or basic licences only under the unified licence norms.

 Tata Teleservices currently has basic licences for Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

 Tata Teleservices has also acquired letter of intent for basic licence for four circles of Uttar Pradesh (west), Haryana, Punjab and Kerala.

 If the government gives clearance for the new applications it would catapult Tatas into the big league along with Reliance Infocomm, BSNL and Bharti.