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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Dec. 5 The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on Friday said that no irregularity has been made in making refund to Reliance Communications Ltd. on surrendering its dual technology approval in six circles.

Reliance Communications was given in-principle approval in October, 2007 for usage of dual technology spectrum (GSM in addition to CDMA) in 20 service areas.

Accordingly, the company had paid Rs 1651.5 crore towards fee for dual technology permission in 20 service areas.

However, it was found that out of these 20 service areas, in six of the service areas (Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orrisa, West Bengal and Kolkata), Reliance Telecom Ltd. (RTL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of RCom, also holds UAS licences (with GSM spectrum allocated).

“The Government considered it desirable not to allocate GSM technology spectrum in these six service areas and the Department of Telecommunications amended UAS licences of RCom for 14 service areas only. The licences of RCom were not amended in spite of payment of requisite entry fees which would have otherwise enabled them to get GSM spectrum under two group companies in these six service areas, thus amounting to hoarding of spectrum. Since the Government has backed out from its commitment to grant dual technology spectrum in these service areas, it was considered appropriate to refund the fee of about Rs 112 crore paid by RCom for these six service areas,” said a press statement.

The Ministry added that it was incorrect to make any comparison of the present case with the case of Bharti Airtel in 2004 when they surrendered one of the two operating licenses (one for basic service and one for cellular service) held by them after migration to Unified Access Service Regime.

“The present case is also not comparable to the case of Idea and Spice who hold valid telecom access licences and on whom the merger guideline of licences in a service area will apply,” the release said.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Reliance Communications Ltd

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