No change in licence norms: Raja

NEW DELHI: In a move that will bring cheer to existing telecom players and spell a death blow to many aspirants who want to enter the telecom sector, the DoT is likely to stick by the current license norms while awarding new licenses.

This was revealed by communications minister A Raja, who told reporters in Chennai that there would not be a change in the license norms for new players. "How can we change the norms after having received the applications. This will not be fair to the existing players," a TV channel quoted Mr Raja as saying.

Mr Raja’s statement is a complete reversal of his statement last week when had said: "A committee has been set up for the purpose of formulating new guidelines to screen applications.

This committee will submit its report in the next few days and it will come out with recommendations for putting in place fresh guidelines as per which new telecom licences would be issued."

If the DoT decides to go by the existing policy, telecom licenses, or rather the allocation of spectrum for new applicants, will continue dished out on a first-come-first service basis.

This will mean that global major such as AT&T and realty firms such as DLF and Unitech do not stand a chance as they are well behind in the queue. Besides, it will also imply that pending applications of existing players such as Vodafone, Idea, Spice, Reliance (GSM) will be allocated spectrum on a priority basis, when compared to the new applicants.

Continuation with the existing policy also implies that 2G spectrum will continue to come bundled with a telecom license and will not be auctioned.