Over 200 seek telecom licence as deadline ends

Over 200 seek telecom licence as deadline ends

DoT forms panel to screen the applications

Our Bureau

Mumbai, Oct. 1

Hinduja TMT and real estate developer Omaxe Ltd were among the last of the eleventh-hour hopefuls who applied for universal access telecom licences on Monday, the last day for applications.The Board of Hinduja TMT approved the application for telecom licence by the company, a notice to the stock exchanges said. Omaxe too said it proposed to file an application with the Department of Telecommunications through a wholly owned subsidiary Satvik Hitech Builders Pvt Ltd.The Hindujas had earlier been in a joint venture with Hutchison in the Gujarat circle providing GSM services under the brand name *Fascel.'There are now over 200 applications for universal access licences with DoT. Only some of the applicants - such as Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular, Spice and BPL Mobile - are operating telephony companies wishing to expand their footprint or which have a presence in telecom-related businesses. The other applicants are Swan Telecom (through which Reliance Communications is applying for GSM spectrum), Stel, Allied Infratech, Datacom, ByCell, Cheetah and Tulip IT.There is a clutch of unlikely applicants from the real estate industry. These are Indiabulls, Unitech, Parsvnath, DLF and now, Omaxe. Although the regulations currently allow for unlimited players, a problem would arise if everyone wants to provide mobile telephony since spectrum is limited.

Spectrum crunch

"And mobile telephony is currently the most desired business for these applicants," said a telecom analyst. Already, existing players are complaining about spectrum scarcity. The Department of Telecommunications has constituted a committee to examine these applications and to formulate a new set of guidelines for processing these applications. Guidelines will have to be devised to keep out some of the hopefuls, said a telecom sector analyst. "Of course the applicants could provide wire line services too, but that is currently unattractive because of the huge capital costs and long break-even period," he said.The industry expectation is that players, which are already operating wireless telecom licences and which are seeking to expand their footprint, might get preference over the other applicants.

Applicants' listHinduja TMT and real estate developer Omaxe Ltd were among the last of the eleventh-hour hopefuls. Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular, Spice and BPL Mobile are some of the applicants.Realty companies such as Indiabulls, Unitech, Parsvnath, and DLF also in the race.

Source: The Hindu Business line

Raja to meet industry leaders today
DoT may come out with lock-in period clause

New Delhi, October 2
Communications Minister A. Raja has convened a meeting of all telecom operators tomorrow to discuss the broad industry scenario and a host of policy issues in the wake of scrambling by old and new players to get licences, besides TRAI's proposals on licencing reforms.

Two representatives from each operator are allowed to attend the meeting which does not have any fixed agenda except to discuss the telecom scenario, sources said, but added the issue of fresh licences could come up for discussion.

The meeting comes barely a day after the Department of Telecom's deadline for submitting licence applications expired on October 1. The DoT has received close to 500 applications for telecom licences, including from US-based AT&T, realty firms DLF, Unitech, Parsvnath, Omaxe, consumer durables major Videocon and metals giant Sterlite among others.

Official sources said the meeting could also discuss the spectrum allocation to existing players, operators' stand on regulator TRAI's licencing recommendations and the situation arising out of the sudden surge of telecom licence seekers.

Sources said DoT is also mulling imposing higher charges for spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz to existing operators and may initiate a dialogue with operators at tomorrow's meeting.

On the other hand, operators may suggest tough eligibility criteria to keep non-serious players out of the telecom sector, the sources said. This is important especially in view of the shortage of spectrum, which has impacted expansion plans of existing players.

However, the new hopefuls have said there was a scope for further competition in the sector and this would benefit subscribers in terms of choice of operators and tariffs.

Sources also said DoT may come out with strict clauses including lock-in period for any company to exit from the business in order to keep non-serious player out of race.

DoT is also mulling revising eligibility criteria like increasing the net worth of company and may demand full licence fee within a week of issuing the letter of intent and that too without guarantee of giving spectrum.

The meeting also assumed importance as operators' stand on various issues has been different. Moreover, a decision is pending on TRAI's recommendations on the licencing reforms.

An internal panel of DoT is already looking into TRAI's suggestions of August 29 on not capping the number of players, allowing dual (GSM and CDMA) technology to unified access operators and decreasing the combined subscriber base criteria from 67 per cent. — PTI

Source: The Tribune

Soon, Bharti to offer mobile money transfer
2 Oct, 2007, 1125 hrs IST,Joji Thomas Philip, TNN

NEW DELHI: India's largest mobile service provider Bharti Airtel is all set to unveil the mobile money transfer services in India. The company will launch host of value-added services, primarily related to M-commerce applications.

These include the platform that allows both its prepaid and postpaid users to link their credit card, debit card or bank accounts to their mobile connection. (This facility has already been thrown open to its pre-paid users and Bharti subscriber can use this facility to top up or pay the bill of other cellular users also). Also on the cards is an extension of these M-commerce applications to allow customers pays their utility bills and also pay for their railway tickets and hotel rooms via their handsets.
The announcements, which will be made shortly, will make Bharti the first operator in the country to offer such services. Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank of India had given the nod to Bharti and SBI to launch the project in the country as ‘not-for-profit companies’ under Section 25 of the Companies Act.
Mobile money transfer, when introduced, is set to revolutionise the industry as it holds a slew of advantages when compared to the traditional method—from lower transaction costs to ease of use to coupled with the fact that India has more 200 million mobile subscribers.
Millions of migrant workers within India and expatriate workers of Indian origin globally will gain from the service—India is the biggest recipient of overseas remittances in the world and accounts for around 10% of the world market. For instance, as per the World Bank estimates, Indian expatriates remitted over $22 billion in 2005.

Bharti Airtel and IBM are also working together to create the ‘Mobile Wallet’ that will turn your mobile phone into a credit card and also offer you a host of other services, including that of a navigator device for location-based services such as accessing maps, information, and directions.

Mobile Wallet has been pioneered by Japan’s NTT-DoCoMo and is gaining popularity there. Wallet phones are used as pre-paid electronic cash, as membership cards for clubs and other loyalty programmes, to buy tickets (movie, rail and air) and also to buy products from vending machines.

Source: The Economic Times

DoT plays down TRAI's effort to manage spectrum
3 Oct, 2007, 0548 hrs IST,Joji Thomas Philip, TNN

NEW DELHI: The department of telecom (DoT) has turned down TRAI's demand that the regulator be entrusted with the task of spectrum management, the radio frequencies on which mobile services operate.

The DoT while accepting that TRAI's charge that its (DoT) wireless planning and co-ordination wing (WPC) has 'not been able to perform its role as spectrum planner to the desired level', wants to give this task to the Centre for Excellence for Radio Spectrum Engineering and Management (CERSEM), which is in the process of being set up.

Seeking the telecom commission's nod to set up the CERSEM, the DoT said that lack of qualified professionals and poor knowledge in new technologies demand a new set professionally run unit to handle spectrum management and allocation.

Further, justifying the need to pass on the WPC's responsibilities to the CERSEM, the DoT added: "The spectrum management policy and planning requires sophisticated skills and forward looking knowledge. It needs to foresee future technologies, their spectrum requirements and keep itself up to date with spectrum management techniques. It also requires the involvement of other stakeholders and inputs from experts in the field, which sometimes are not available in government set-up."

In fact, TRAI had quoted similar reasons and had said that the tasks of both spectrum management and allocation should be assigned to it. Additionally, TRAI also reminded the DoT that India too must "follow international practices where telecom regulator has been given specific responsibility for the evolution of spectrum policy with management under the guidance of an inter-departmental co-ordination committee".

However, the DoT which has never wanted to pass on this core function to TRAI has now responded to the regulator's critical stance by proposing that the CERSEM handle this issue. DoT sources said that the CERSEM would be constituted as a society with members from all sectors on a public private partnership model.

At the same time, TRAI has also said that any body that did spectrum management should follow a set of principles to respond to the challenges of new market dynamics and technological advance. These principles should include the fact that the policy is responsive to change, is technology and service neutral, should balance public and private use, allow use of mixed methodologies, promote efficient use of spectrum and encourage growth, follow market oriented distribution of this resource in addition to pricing radio resources correctly, the regulator added.

Source: The Economic Times

Raja hopes to get spectrum from Defence by Nov
3 Oct, 2007, 1436 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: Telecom operators strapped for spectrum can hope to get additional airwaves soon, with the Communications Ministry today saying that the row with Defence Ministry over vacation of spectrum would be resolved by November.
"The spectrum issue with the Ministry of Defence will be resolved by November end," Communications and IT Minister A Raja told reporters on the sidelines of an event.
The Communications Ministry has been demanding release of 45 MHz of spectrum from Defence for further expansion of the sector.
A GoM headed by Pranab Mukherjee, in its first meeting in September, had decided to form a sub-committee to look into the technical aspects of releasing spectrum from Defence.
It was decided in the meeting that DoT would provide a list of important locations to be vacated on priority, immediately on provision of alternate media for these links. The remaining links would be vacated in a phased manner during the next one year as soon as the alternate media is ready.
DoT had assured the Defence Ministry that the alternate medium on Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) would have the same level of security that the defence services currently have. Vacation of spectrum by shifting to alternate media will not jeopardise security in any manner, the department said.

Source: The Economic Times

DoT plays down TRAI's effort to manage spectrum
3 Oct, 2007, 0548 hrs IST,Joji Thomas Philip, TNN

Source: The Economic Times

Telecom spectrum more an issue in metros: Study
2 Oct, 2007, 1649 hrs IST, PTI

MUMBAI: Non-availability of spectrum, though a problem in metros, may not be an issue in smaller cities that are high-growth areas for telecom, a Morgan Stanley study has said.
"We believe spectrum is a bottleneck for operators, however, it is more of an issue in the metros, and less so in high growth areas such as Class B and Class C circles where we believe most of the incremental growth would come from," the study said.
The estimated average penetration in the metros is 66 per cent as compared to 17.8 per cent for India, 21 per cent for Class A, 15 per cent for Class B and 9 per cent for Class C circles.
According to the study, the subscriber base in metros may go down.
"Metros contributed 31 per cent of the subscriber base in FY-04, but it has gone down to 18 per cent in August 2007." it said.
"We estimate it to reduce to 14 per cent in FY-10. We estimate that during FY 2008-10, Class C would account for 17 per cent, whereas Class B would account for 46 per cent and Class A 30 per cent," it said.
"Metros would account for only 9 per cent of the incremental net adds in our estimate," the study said.
Existing operators can "easily double" their subscriber base without needing additional spectrum, Morgan Stanley said quoting TRAI's recommendations.

500 file for telecom licences

New Delhi, PTI:

The frenzy over telecom licences came to an end on Monday with the tally touching the 500-mark as a number of biggies including AT&T which has tied up with Mahindras and Hinduja Group applied through its subsidiary HTMT Telecom, DLF, Sterlite and Videocon jumped into fray.
The figure may go beyond 500 as Department of Telecom (DoT) is still counting the applications received as the deadline expired. Nearly 200 applications are estimated to have been submitted on the last day.

The companies which have sought licence include property developers Parsvnath, Unitech, Indiabulls Real Estate, Omaxe and DLF. Besides, Allianz Infratech, Shyam Telecom, HFCL, BPL, Cheetah, DataCom, Stel, Swan Telecom, Tulip, JSW Steel and Bycell also applied. Ispat Industries, Sify, Moser Baer and Dalmia Group are also believed to have put in applications.

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