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DoT rejects reconsideration of rollout obligation
By siliconindia
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008, 19:30 IST
Bangalore: New telecom entrants will face tough competition, with Department of Telecommunication (DoT), rejecting its appeal for relaxation of their service rollout. Clause 34 of the Universal Access Service License (UASL) stands obligatory and hence the telecom authority does not consider the plea.
According to the Clause, any licensee has to cover at least 10 percent of the district headquarters in the first year and 50 percent of it within three years of operation. However, on their part, the telecom operators opined for a renewal of the application, as it was supposed to be misinterpreted which according to them, seeked a consideration on the date of rollout obligations and not on any respite from set rules. They had asked the DoT to consider the rollout guidelines from the date of the allocation of the spectrum, instead of the date of license issue. As according to a CEO of a new telecom service, "This is detrimental as many companies that have received licenses are yet to be allocated spectrum. The department or the ministry is not giving any time frame for spectrum allocation."
