Number of unified access service applications tops 300
NEW DELHI: Leading American telecom player AT&T applied for a unified access service licence (UASL) for all the 22 circles in India on Monday — the last date for filing applications.
Besides AT&T, IT company Tulip and real-estate developer DLF also made it just in time. With this, the number of applications has crossed 300. If granted licence, it will be the second stint for AT&T in India.
The company, which had a stake in Idea Cellular earlier, exited the venture in July 2005. Till then, Idea Cellular was a joint venture between three companies - the AV Birla Group, the Tata Group and the US-based AT&T Wireless, which held shares in Idea through a Mauritius company.
AT&T, which has 65.1 million subscribers in the US, is partnering Mahindra Telecommunications, to comply with the 74% FDI limit in the telecom sector.
“This is an important step towards participating in India’s upcoming spectrum allocation proceedings,” an AT&T statement said. AT&T already has a licence, through its joint venture with Mahindra Telecom, to operate national long-distance and international long-distance services in India.
Besides AT&T and another US-based telco, partnering Vodafone, Russia’s Sistema is also in the telecom rush.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had set October 1 as the cut-off date for receiving licences. Foreign players which are already part of the Indian telecom sector include UK’s Vodafone and Malaysia’s Maxis and Telekom Malaysia.
Meanwhile, DoT has formed an internal committee to frame guidelines for granting new licences.
The slew of applications for UAS licences, including from some unknown entities and non-telecom firms, and spectrum crunch even for existing players have resulted in the government setting a cut-off date.
“The idea is to screen non-serious players,” a source pointed out.
In a legal notice to the DoT, the GSM phone association represented by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had recently said that existing GSM service providers must be allotted spectrum before others.
Referring to the new applications, COAI director general TV Ramachandran said that as many applications were from companies with no telecom background, it was possible that they were acting as proxies for vested interests.
