The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sent a notice to Etisalat DB for cancellation of Delhi and Mumbai licences for not meeting rollout obligations. Idea Cellular has also got a similar notice for the Punjab circle. The company had been asked to explain why its licenses in these two circles should not be cancelled. Etisalat DB has been given 60 days to respond. DoT was likely to issue notices to more new operators in the coming week.
Etisalat DB has a subscriber base of 273,634 in Delhi and 46,590 in Mumbai. It had a 0.08 per cent market share at the end of January 2011. An operator has to start services in 10 per cent of district headquarters and towns in a circle within one year of getting spectrum. Any violation invites monetary penalty or license cancellation. Subsequently, DoT issued notices to most of these companies.
The operators, mainly new ones, have already paid a total penalty of Rs 300 crore to the government. Trai said DoT should cancel 38 licences because of operators’ failure to comply with the licence conditions. These included those belonging to new players Loop Telecom (14 circles), Sistema (10), Uninor (8) and Etisalat DB (2). The only old player in the list was Aircel (4).
Company Name | CMP |
---|---|
Bharti Airtel | 1570.10 |
Vodafone Idea | 6.67 |
Indus Towers | 330.10 |
Tata Communications | 1739.05 |
Bharti Hexacom Ltd. | 1328.35 |
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