Question : APPLICATIONS FOR ISSUE OF LICENCES

(a) whether the Government has received applications for issuing licences for mobile telephone services in the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof during the last three years and the current year, company-wise;

(c) whether the number of applications that have not been sanctioned for issuing licences;

(d) if so, the details thereof alongwith the number of applications sanctioned and rejected during the last three years and the current year and the reasons therefor; and

(e) the steps taken/being taken by the Government in this regard?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI GURUDAS KAMAT)

(a) to (e): Madam, as per guidelines dated 14-12-2005 for grant of Unified Access Services Licncees (UASL), Government has been receiving UASL applications on continuous basis. However, in terms of Press Release dated 24-09-2007 (which appeared in the newspapers on 25-09-2007), it has been decided that new UASL applications will not be accepted by Department of Telecom (DoT) after 01-10-2007 tilt further orders. As on 25-09-2007, there were 232 UASL applications pending from 22 companies in 22 service areas and 343 UASL applications were received from 26-09-2007 to 01-10-2007 from 26 companies in 22 service areas.

So far, Government has processed only those 232 UASL applications which were received upto 25-09-2007, out of which 122 UAS Licences have been issued to 17 eligible applicant companies in 22 service areas and rest are rejected. Company-wise details of sanction and rejection of these UASL applications alongwith reason of rejection are given in Annexure-I. Company-wise list of 343 UASL applications received from 26-09-2007 to 01-10-2007 from 26 companies in 22 service areas is given in Annexure-II.

Further, based on the observations of the Hon`ble TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) and the Report of the Spectrum Committee, the Government has sought the recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 22-07-2009 on the policy of no capping on the number of Access Service providers in each service area in terms of pending applications for grant of new UAS licenses received from 26-09-2007 to 01-10-2007.