The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has conveyed to the Department of Communications (DoT) that it may not immediately decide on the issue relating to capping of the number of players per circle. The regulator said that it was a wider issue and could not be considered in singularity. TRAI, in this wake, has said it would only be able to give reply by November.
However, DoT is not in position to wait for November and wants the regulator to provide a response by as early as next month. Last year, the communications ministry abruptly changed the last date of 2G license application to September 25, 2007 from October 1, 2007 it had announced earlier. A number of companies, which had applied for a license between these two dates challenged the action of DoT in the court.
The Delhi High Court in this regard has asked the DoT to entertain all the applications that were received till the original deadline, thus bringing in a number of new telecom license applicants into the picture. With the court order forcing DoT to reverse its decision, the department had sought the help of TRAI to settle the issue.
The regulator had earlier ruled out that there was no need for putting a cap on the number of players in a circle. However, after the order of Delhi High Court, the DoT is forced to reconsider applications of 24 companies, which between them had filed for some 343 circle licensees. DoT feels that by allowing licenses to all these operators will put too much crunch on spectrum availability, thus harming the cause of overall communication quality in the nation.
Accordingly, DoT had asked the regulator to reconsider reversing its earlier recommendations and setting a cap on number of players that are allowed to offer telecom services in a circle. However, the regulator feels that the issue of capping the number of players can have long term implications and therefore a decision may not be taken without due consideration of all the outcomes. As such, the regulator and the DoT are set to engage in yet another battle.