The Hindu Business Line : PMO asks DoT to look into ‘undue favours’ to Swan

New Delhi, Dec. 9 The Prime Minister’s Office has asked the Department of Telecom to look into allegations of undue favour shown to Swan Telecom, one of the new companies to get telecom licences.

Swan Telecom had recently got into a roaming agreement with BSNL, which will allow the private company to use the state-owned firm’s national network to offer mobile services. While Swan will pay a fee to BSNL for using the network, concerns have been raised since BSNL has so far refused to open up its network to any private telecom companies for roaming agreements.

The PMO’s order follows complaints by at least two Members of Parliament that Swan may have been given undue favours.

“BSNL, which has never done any roaming agreement with any operator, was forced to do a roaming agreement with Swan Telecom. The same favour was not extended to any other operator. I am told that the policy was made by BSNL only to suit Swan Telecom,” said a letter to the Prime Minister from Mr Dharam Pal Sabharwal, a Rajya Sabha MP.

The same MP had earlier written to the Central Vigilance Commission seeking an enquiry into the alleged irregularities in revenue reporting by Reliance Communications (RCom).

Swan was owned by Reliance Communications when it applied for licence. However, RCom has since maintained that it has sold off majority of its equity shares in the company to Dynamix Balwas Group, which is a real estate firm based in Mumbai.

When contacted, BSNL officials ruled out any irregularity on the roaming arrangement with Swan and said that they were open to similar tie-ups with other private companies at mutually agreed commercial terms. BSNL officials pointed out that they were also open to sharing infrastructure with any private operator.

The MP, in his letter sent on November 6, said that two DoT officers were transferred from the Wireless Planning and Coordination wing when they refused to allocate spectrum to Swan Telecom.

“Once these officers were transferred, spectrum was allotted to Swan Telecom for Delhi,” the letter from Mr Sabharwal said. The PMO has forwarded the MP’s letter to DoT and has asked it to look into the matter.

Etisalat to buy stake

Meanwhile, Swan has announced that UAE’s telecom giant Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) will buy about 45 per cent stake in the company for up to $900 million. This deal values Swan Telecom at $2 billion.

At present, Mauritius-based Delphi Investments Ltd holds 9.9 per cent stake in Swan. This share was earlier held by Reliance Communications. A 90.1 per cent stake in Swan Telecom is owned by Tiger Trustees Pvt Ltd, which in turn is 99.8 per cent owned by Dynamix Balwas Ltd.

The remaining 0.2 per cent of Tiger Trustees is in the name of Parrot Consultants Pvt Ltd and Zebra Consultants Pvt Ltd.

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