The Wireless Planning & Coordination (WPC) wing of the Department of Telecom has been told to take a decision on giving spectrum to Qualcomm. WPC is responsible for managing and allocating air waves.
This comes after the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) told the Department of Telecom to make it clear whether or not it will allocate broadband spectrum to US chipmaker Qualcomm.
WPC's view sought
The DoT had told the Telecom Tribunal that it will examine whether or not the US chipmaker had applied within the prescribed time period when the company puts in its request for spectrum allocation. But the tribunal said that the DoT should make its position clear at the next hearing on December 2. DoT's licensing wing has now sought WPC's view on the issue.
Though the Department had earlier told the company that it had agreed to compromise and offer one licence, it is yet to resolve the issue of whether the company had applied within the 90-day window period after the auctions got over.
Qualcomm's licence had been held back because its application did not fulfil the necessary conditions, according to DoT. The Department had said that the US company had applied for four different licences which were not permitted under existing licence rules. Secondly, the licences were applied under companies registered in India, which, the DoT says, were not introduced by Qualcomm Inc as its subsidiaries within three months of the auction.
While the company maintains that it applied for licence on August 9, well within the 3-month period, the DoT was considering December 20 as the date. The DoT sent a communication to the company in September rejecting the applications. By then Qualcomm offered a compromise formula of merging all its four ventures into one and then taking only one licence.
Interim order
Separately, the company also filed an appeal with telecom tribunal. The TDSAT, on September 28, passed an interim order, restrained the DoT from allotting the BWA spectrum earmarked for Qualcomm to any other operator till further orders.
After the TDSAT stay, on October 10, the DoT offered to give one licence to the US chipmaker for broadband services. The DoT sent a letter to the company asking it to submit bank guarantee and non-conditional acceptance to the offer. While Qualcomm has sent its acceptance letter to DoT, the company is yet to get spectrum.