Termination action on 35 telecom licenses by March
November 18th, 2011 - 4:10 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS) The department of telecom (DoT) Friday said it is in the process of issuing notices to telecom companies pertaining to 35 licenses that failed to meet rollout obligation.
“We are in the process of issuing notices to 35 licenses,” R. Chandrashekhar, Secretary, DoT, said on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry event. “That action would be completed by March.”
The telecom ministry had sought legal opinion on the cancellation of these licenses earlier.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had recommended to DoT to impose a penalty and cancel 65 new licenses owing to the operators’ inability to meet out rollout obligation.
The DoT has issued 15 notices to new telecom companies.
These licenses were issued when A. Raja was the telecom minister. Raja is in jail after being accused of causing huge losses to the exchequer.
Raja was sacked when his ministry was accused of selling licences and spectrum at cheap rates, allegedly causing huge losses to the government.
Chandrashekhar said the new telecom policy, which includes new norms on managing spectrum and proposes de-linking licenses from spectrum, will be unveiled in January, a month later than scheduled.
The draft released by Communications Minister Kapil Sibal in October also suggested removing roaming charges for subscribers within the country, besides aiming to exponentially increase broadband availability and speed and allowing mobile numbers to be ported to any part of the country.
- DoT now working on broadband spectrum auction - Jul 20, 2011
- TRAI examining recommendation to cancel 17 licenses: Sibal - Jun 30, 2011
- Why only 15 for licence cancellation, TRAI asks DoT - May 25, 2011
- Government, 11 telecom firms get court notice on 2G spectrum (Roundup) - Jan 10, 2011
- DoT to speed up process to meet new 2G auction deadline - Apr 24, 2012
- Supreme Court issues notice to government, 11 firms in 2G saga (Second Lead) - Jan 10, 2011
- Apex court issues notices to government, 11 firms in 2G saga (Lead) - Jan 10, 2011
- Watchdog wants government to cancel more telecom licenses - Jul 15, 2011
- 2G: Raja examines ex-telecom regulator (Lead) - Mar 14, 2012
- Telecom Commission undecided on mergers, spectrum fee - Dec 02, 2011
- Birla wrote letter to PM: Ex-telecom regulator - Mar 16, 2012
- EGoM to take final call on pricing and refarming of spectrum - May 26, 2012
- Former telecom regulator testifies in 2G case - Feb 23, 2012
- Qualcomm to get BWA spectrum shortly: DoT - Apr 19, 2012
- Watghdog wants 69 teleom licences scrapped for poor roll-out (Lead) - Nov 18, 2010
Tags: cancellation, chandrashekhar, confederation of indian industry, kapil sibal, legal opinion, mobile numbers, New Delhi, new telecom, norms, raja, roaming charges, sidelines, spectrum, telecom companies, telecom licenses, telecom ministry, telecom policy, telecom regulatory authority, telecom regulatory authority of india, trai