The Hindu Business Line : Telecom FDI compliance: Deadline now is April 2

The Government on Tuesday notified its decision to extend the deadline for telecom operators to comply with the guidelines in Press Note 5 related to increase of FDI limit to 74 per cent. The new deadline is April 2, 2007.

The Government had earlier set January 2, 2007, as the deadline but it has been extended because some of the norms mentioned in the Press Note 5 are being reviewed. The Union Cabinet had announced this decision late last month.

Remote Access

The Cabinet had also appointed a team led by the Cabinet Secretary to rework the proposals made by the Department of Telecom (DoT), especially those related to permitting remote access to operators.

The Cabinet has broadly approved most of the other proposals including the ones dealing with foreigners holding key posts in telecom companies.

The Press Note 5 was issued in November 2005 and this is fifth time that the deadline for implementing the guidelines is being extended. Mr P. Chidambaram, Union Minister of Finance, had earlier said that the issue related to remote access was still being discussed.

While Press Note 5 had banned remote access, the DoT had proposed to allow it with some restrictions. Remote access would allow multinational telecom operators to monitor their network in India through network operating centres outside the country.

Security Concerns

The DoT had proposed that remote access might be allowed with a rider that operators will have to put up a system in place, which will give security agencies access to the monitoring centre from India.

The Press Note 5 guidelines were issued to take care of the security concerns.