SC allows telcos time till February 4 for cancelled telecom licences

15 Jan 2013 Evaluate

Giving relief to telecom operators, the Supreme Court (SC) has allowed telecom operators to continue their services till February 4, 2013 whose licences were cancelled last year in February. In an aim to help the telecom carriers to generate more interest in the auction after the government failed to sell all available spectrum in an auction last November, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had submitted the application in court seeking that the existing licence holders be allowed to continue operations till the auction scheduled for March 11, 2013 was completed.

The court also asked the DoT to indicate the reserve price that it would fix for the auction scheduled to be held in March. However, in the course of hearing, the apex court also made it clear that all those telecom service providers who had not participated in the auction of the cancelled licences would not be allowed to continue and take advantage of the situation. Further, the court, while adjourning the hearing till Feb 4, asked the DoT to give the names of the successful bidder companies in the auction held on November 12 and 14, 2012.

In February 2012, after the court cancelled 122 telecom licences, allowed affected operators to operate for four months. On November 27, the court said all operators that continued services beyond four months after licences were cancelled will have to pay an additional sum, but did not specify an amount.

On November 12 and 14 last year, fresh auctions across telecom circles in India were held. Only 55% of the GSM spectrum on offer was bid for in the auction. Only 5 players took part in the auction of GSM spectrum, whereas the auction for CDMA airwaves was called off after the two interested companies - Tata Teleservices and Videocon - pulled out. The main reason for poor response from telcos was the high base price of Rs 14,000 crore.

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