Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Nov 28, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Nov 28, 2003 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications Standalone cell players need to pay Rs 126 cr for unified licence G. Rambabu
New Delhi , Nov. 27 STANDALONE cellular operators such as Hutch, Idea Cellular and BPL Mobile may have to fork out as little as Rs 126 crore to migrate to a unified licence allowing them to provide international long distance (ILD), national long distance (NLD), Internet and VSAT services across the country. As per the cost estimates being worked out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which is in the process of framing its recommendations on a unified licence for the entire gamut of telecom services, the operators will also have the option to bid for additional spectrum frequency along with a relaxation in the foreign direct investment cap of 49 per cent that exists at present. According to official sources, although the TRAI has just floated a consultation paper on unified licences and will be submitting its recommendations in six months' time, some preliminary exercise has also begun on the migration fees that would have to be paid by operators in each sector. Like in the case of unified access licence, where the basic operators have been allowed to provide fully mobile services by paying the difference in entry fees paid by the fourth cellular operators, a similar kind of migration package will be offered to operators who want to provide long distance services, bundled with ISP and VSAT services. What is therefore being considered for standalone players (as different from integrated telecom operators like Bharti, Tata and Reliance Infocomm) is that they can shell out the entry fees that have been paid by existing ILD, NLD, ISP and VSAT operators. While the entry fee for an NLD licence is worth Rs 100 crore, an ILD licence is Rs 25 crore and an ISP/VSAT licence amounts to Rs 0.30 crore. The main advantage that the standalone players have in venturing into these services would be a change in the rollout guidelines that had been specified for the original operators. The details will have to be worked out after consultation with various stakeholders, they said. Given this criterion, standalone unified access licences - Shyam Telelink and HFCL Infotel will also have to spend Rs 126 crore to start offering the entire range of telecom services. ILD operators such as Data Access will have to pay Rs 101 crore for extending its services to include NLD and VSAT. It already is an ISP provider. The sources noted that at present there are no standalone NLD operators who will be required to pay only Rs 26 crore to migrate to the unified licence.
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