New Delhi, October 31
Decks were cleared for the establishment of a unified licensing regime in the telecom sector with the Union Cabinet today giving its stamp of approval to the recommendations made by the high-powered Group of Ministers on Telecom.
Communications Minister Arun Shourie told mediapersons after the meeting that the Cabinet had approved the unified licensing regime. No decision, however, was taken on the increasing foreign investment in the telecom sector to 74 per cent from the existing 49 per cent. Besides, the Cabinet decided that Reliance Infomm would have to pay the penalties as recommended by TRAI within a maximum period of 60 days.
The Cabinet agreed to reactivate the USO fund to provide access to telephone services in rural areas. A fund of Rs 100 crore has been approved for this purpose.On spectrum availability, the Cabinet decided that a
mechanism would be worked after a discussion between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defence.
The TRAI had suggested the imposition of penalties on Reliance Infocomm for offering mobile services using the wireless in local loop (WLL) technology.
According to the TRAI’s recommendations, the entry fee paid by the fourth cellular operator in various states would be the benchmark for working out the amount to be paid by basic operators who wish to migrate to the new regime.
Reliance Infocomm will have to pay Rs 221.04 crore for its WLL mobile services in 17 circles while Tata Cellular Services will have to shell out Rs 129.13 crore for offering WLL (M) in four circles.
Over and above, Reliance will have to pay Rs 1096 crore, an amount equal to the license fee that it has paid, and that of the fourth cellular player and a penalty of Rs 485 crore if the company desires to shift to unified license regime once the proposed regime comes into force.
