Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Sep 02, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Sep 02, 2003 |
|
|
|
|
|
Info-Tech
-
Telecommunications Pvt cellular operators meet Advani Our Bureau
The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L. K. Advani, with (from left) Mr Rajeev Chandrashekar, Chairman, BPL Mobile, Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal , Chairman, Bharti Group, and Mr Ravi Ruia, Vice-Chairman, Essar, at a meeting in the Capital on Monday.
New Delhi , Sept. 1 THE private cellular operators have met the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, to impress upon him the need to implement the decision of the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on limited mobility (WLL), increase the FDI cap in telecom and as also their opposition to unified licensing policy. According to industry sources, the delegation which met Mr Advani comprised Mr Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Group, Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Chairman, BPL Mobile, Mr Dilip Modi, Chairman, Spice Communications, and Mr Ravi Ruia, Vice-Chairman, Essar Group. With the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) yet to officially communicate its decision to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the issue of amending the basic licences in tune with the "spirit" of the TDSAT order, the cellular operators have been demanding that WLL operators should not be allowed to offer call forwarding and multiple registration services to their subscribers. Although the licence allows them to legally offer these services, the WLL operators are using to provide roaming facilities, which they were never meant to do. Soon after the TRAI recommended that the basic service licences need to be amended, Mr Mukesh Ambani and Mr Ratan Tata met up with the Union Communications Minister, Mr Arun Shourie. Not to be left behind, the private cellular operators met up with the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr Brijesh Mishra, and are now following it up with Mr Advani. According to sources, among the issues discussed were the unified licence policy, which is under consideration by the TRAI as also the apprehensions of the Government in hiking the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit to 74 per cent. The cellular operators have contended that by bringing in a unified licensing policy the WLL operators are being provided an opportunity to offer a full-fledged mobile service and they would oppose any such move. They also tried to ally the "security" concerns of the Government regarding a hike in FDI limit and stated that as long as the management control was in Indian hands, there should no such fear, the sources said.
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|