Mobile tower firms registration to continue in present form

NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecom is likely to continue with the registration of mobile tower companies, IP-1 providers, in its present form as they have not been included in the Unified Licensing regime.

In order to register as an IP-1 provider, a company need to submit an application to DoT along with a processing fee of Rs 5,000.

"As the guidelines for grant of Unified Licence have been issued and IP-1 has not been included in the Unified Licensing regime... IP-1 registration in its present form may be started," sources in the telecom department said.

The registration of mobile tower firms, infrastructure provider category-1 (IP-1) has been discontinued after Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended bringing these companies under Unified License and imposing 8 per cent tax on them under the new licencing regime at par with other service providing firms.

However, IP-1 providers were not included in the Unified Licensing regime, the guidelines for which was issued last month.

The recommendation for TRAI was opposed by industry players saying that they provide services to multiple sector and not just the telecom segment.

There is no restriction on the amount of foreign equity in the applicant company (seeking IP-1 status), which means it can have 100 per cent foreign direct investment.

However, if FDI in the company exceeds 49 per cent, a copy of FIPB approval is to be submitted to the department.

At present, over 400 companies are registered as IP-1 providers.