Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Communications & Information Technology

09-December-2011 15:48 IST

Shri Milind Deora, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology informed Rajya Sabha today in a written reply that after reconsideration TRAI vide its letter dated 14 July, 2011 has recommended for cancellation of 53 licences. TRAI has also recommended to seek legal opinion once again on the issue of cancellation of another 30 Unified Access Services (UAS) licences.

The reply stated that as per TRAI, the licensees are not only required to register themselves with the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC)/Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) cells for meeting the coverage criterion but are also required to commission the service, which means complete installation of all necessary equipment and offer of service to the subscribers so as to meet the stipulated performance roll out obligation.

Out of 53 licences show cause notices for termination of 16 (UAS) licences have been issued for violation of the rollout obligations. Government is in the process of issuance of the show cause notices for termination of UAS licences to another 35 licensees. In respect of remaining two licensees, the mater is subjudice. Action ha sbeen taken for seeking the legal opinion once again on the issue of cancellation of another 30 UAS licensces.

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License cancellation recommendations follow failure to meet rollout obligations; legal review and show-cause processes are being pursued. Recommendation for license cancellation was made because licensees failed to satisfy rollout obligations, which require registration with technical and monitoring bodies and commissioning of service by installing necessary equipment and offering service to subscribers; show-cause notices for termination have been issued to several licensees, further notices are being prepared, some matters are sub judice, and legal opinion review is being sought for additional licences.