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Reliance willing to withdraw one set of cellular bids

G. Rambabu

NEW DELHI, July 1

RELIANCE is willing to withdraw one set of bids for fourth cellular licences in 15 circles, if so required by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

According to officials in the company, who finally admitted that they had placed two sets of similar bids for the fourth cellular licences -- one under Reliance Communications Private Ltd, and the other under Reliable Internet Services Ltd -- the m ove was only a precautionary measure.

``It was mainly done to pre-empt the cartelisation that was feared after the proposed merger of the Birla-AT&T-Tata (Batata) and BPL, announced on the March 28. We are not breaking any DoT regulations by doing so. However, if the Department asks us to wi thdraw one set of bids then we are fully willing to comply with it,'' they said.

The officials, however, pointed out that as of now, they have not been told to withdraw the bids and would, therefore, be placing the bids in all the 15 circles under the two companies. If the lower bid of one company gets eliminated in the first stage i tself, then it should in any case not pose any problem. In any case, this is a three-stage bidding process of elimination, they noted.

``The problem arises only if both the set of bids proceed to the final stage. In the worst possible scenario, if both the group companies manage to reach third stage for different circles, and DoT doesn't allow us to proceed, we will withdraw one set,'' they said.

As regards the response for the fourth cellular licences, the officials noted that by applying for all the 15 circles, Reliance was only proving that it is serious about its telecom plans.

They noted that many of the existing cellular operators had opposed the limited mobility WLL services, arguing that Reliance was seeking a back-door entry into cellular services. ``If that was indeed the case then the company would not have bid for so ma ny circles this time. The fact that Reliance is willing to roll out both the limited mobility services and the cellular services across the country is self-explanatory,'' they said.

Interestingly, they noted that at the height of the limited mobility controversy, many groups, including the Sterling Infotech group, had offered to pay Rs 2,500 crore for spectrum.

In fact, in a letter to the Chairman, Telecom Commission, the Sterling Infotech group Chairman, Mr C. Sivasankaran, had noted that he was ``offering to acquire 5 MHz of spectrum in the 800/900 MHz band for all circles for a fee of Rs 2,500 crore, so that the 20 MHz offered for limited mobility would fetch the Government a total sum of Rs 10,000 crore.''

The officials pointed out the very people who had promised to invest so much for spectrum, have not even put in a single bid for the fourth cellular licences. This clearly shows that the offer was only aimed at scuttling the limited mobility services. No thing else, they said.