TRAI has stood by its decision to recommend cancellation of 74 licences due to missing roll-out obligations against 12 asserted by the DoT. TRAI's fresh communication comes in the wake of the DoT's letter to the regulator asking it to reconsider its earlier recommendation in which it had recommended cancellation of 74 licences issued since December 2006.
The DoT has scaled down the number to 12 from 74 suggested by TRAI. In total, DoT has expressed that 15 licenses can be cancelled for missing roll-out obligations. These 15 licenses include 3 licenses which were not recommended by TRAI.
The DoT is of the view that going by licence terms and conditions, the licences are liable to pay liquidated damages if services are not rolled out within 52 weeks. As per the conditions, the operators have to cover 10 per cent of the district head quarters within first year of allotment of spectrum. Rest of 31 licences in the regulator's list showed technical roll-out of their network but the roll-out was either negligible or not proper. TRAI in November 2010 has recommended DoT for cancellation of several licences of Uninor, Etisalat, Videocon and Aircel and others in some telecom circles.
