subject: History of telecom licences issued in india [print this page] History of telecom licences issued in india
Telecom licences awarded so far
1992
Licence awarded to 8 operators in four metros without auction. Spectrum was allocated to Bharti, Sterling, BPL, Usha Martin, Max, Modi Telstra, RPG Cellular and Skycell.
Bharti was initially awarded Mumbai circle which was challenged by Tata telecom.As per the Court decision, Bharti was given the licence of Delhi Circle and BPL was given Mumbai.
1995
Two licences were issued for each of the 19 circles other than metrosthrough auction. The final bids were for US $ 30 billion. The licences were awarded to Bharti, Birla AT&T, Tata, BPL, Escotel, Koshika, Reliance and Jasmine.
As the licence fee awarded during 1995 was very high and the operators were finding it difficult to pay up this amount, the Government decided to shift the fixed licence fees to a revenue sharing regime in 1999.
2001
After awarding the 3rd licence to BSNL / MTNL in all circles, Government auctioned the fourth licence and the winners were Bharti, Idea, Essar and Escotel.
2003
The Government awarded Unified Access Service Licence to fixed line operators like Reliance and Tata. Even though the GSM operators challenged this decision in the supreme court, the issue was settled outside the court by the GSM and CDMA operators. For getting the UAS licence, the CDMA operators paid Rs 1651 cr for the 23 circles.
2008
In 2008, the Government awarded licence to Etisalat, Uninor, Loop, Shyam Sistema,Videocon and STel and the licence fees were fixed at 2001 rates.
TheCDMAoperators like Reliance and Tata teleservices were given GSM licence.
The Indian Government is now reviewing its licencing policy due to the contraversies generated by its earlier decisions
