Existing categorisation of telecom licences based on region is set to change. The Telecom Commission is considering a proposal to bring in a unified licensing regime that will be agnostic to the area of operations and the technology.
Under the existing licensing system, operators are given permits based on the area of operations. So an operator that offers services in Delhi gets a ‘Metro’ category licence and another player in Bihar gets a ‘Circle C’ category licence.
The operators have to pay a higher revenue share of 10 per cent of their annual revenues under the ‘Metro’ category licence, 8 per cent for ‘Circle B’ and 6 per cent for Circle C.
The operators also have to take separate licences for the type of service they offer. For example, a company with Internet service licence cannot offer mobile services.
New regime
Under the new regime, there will be no distinction between a licence for Delhi and Bihar. Operators will have to pay a flat fee of 8 per cent of their annual revenues. Operators also will be permitted to offer any type of service under the same licence.
However, the DoT has proposed to introduce this new regime at the circle level to start with.
Under the earlier proposal, the unified licences were to be issued at three levels, including a single licence for pan-India operators and a district-level licence.
According to an internal note prepared by the DoT for the consideration of the Telecom Commission, there seems to be a rethink on the district level licensing.
The DoT wants the Commission to push through with the circle-level licensing first in order to meet the auction deadline.
Meeting today
The DoT is planning to auction spectrum in November and new operators which win in the bidding would get the new unified licence. The Commission is expected to meet on Friday to take a final view on this.
Bidders seek clarity on licensing rules prior to auction
Prospective bidders on Thursday said they need clarity on the licensing norms prior to the spectrum auction scheduled for November.
The bidders raised a number of questions at the pre-bid conference organised by the Department of Telecom but most of the issues remained unanswered. The conference was attended by all the main operators, including Sistema Shyam, Telenor, Vodafone and Airtel.
Incumbent operators said they wanted clarity on the quantum of contracted spectrum. The DoT is yet to take a decision if the contracted spectrum is 4.4 Mhz or 6.2 Mhz. Operators said this information was crucial for them to take a decision on whether to participate in the auction or not.
The operators also wanted to know if the Government will allow bidders to buy both GSM and CDMA spectrum. The DoT officials present at the meeting told the operators that bidders will be allowed to buy spectrum in only one frequency band. When the operators asked if this meant that the DoT was going back on its dual technology policy, the officials said they would address the issue later.