M A I N   N E W S

Telecom licences may be delinked from Spectrum
New licences to be allotted for 10 years instead of existing 20
Girja Shankar Kaura/TNS

New Delhi, April 11
Wanting to de-link the process of granting a licence in the telecom sector from the allocation of Spectrum, the government today said all licences were proposed to be renewed after 10 years instead of 20 years.

Unveiling the contours of the New Telecom Policy-2011 and the Department of Telecommunication’s 100-day action plan and achievements, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said, “Telecom companies under the (proposed) NTP-2011 will have to file an application 30 months prior for the renewal of the telecom licences and it (the licence) will be renewed for 10 years unlike 20 years as of now.”

The minister added the new telecom policy would bring in reforms such as the audit of Spectrum usage, de-link Spectrum allocation from licences and change merger and acquisition guidelines, among others. ”Regular audit and usage of Spectrum by various agencies….We feel this is required, whether it is the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) or the TRAI (Telecom regulatory authority of India), we have not decided yet,” Sibal told reporters here. ”All future licences should be unified licences and spectrum should be de-linked from licences," he added. On January 1, Sibal had initiated the plan to formulate the NTP-2011.

“Spectrum sharing should be considered to finalise the new policy,” Sibal said.

DoT has also announced formation of a Committee for National Spectrum Act headed by retired Judge Shivraj V Patil. The Department has also formed a broadband committee to look into issues related to National Broadband Plan headed by Telecom expert and advisor to Prime Minister, Sam Pitroda. Sibal, while expressing confidence that NTP-2011 will be finalised by year-end, said that merger and acquisition guidelines in the country’s crowded telecom sector need to be liberalised. Current rules do not allow one company to hold 10 per cent or more in two competing operators in a telecom zone, a regulation, analysts have called restrictive.

The telecom policy was framed in way back in 1999, when the sector was dominated by the state monopoly and when few imagined the country would rapidly become the world's fastest growing market for mobile phone services.

The government is yet to decide on the pricing mechanism for 2G spectrum, he said when asked whether it had worked out a formula to recover additional amount from telecom operators.