re: buy cellular licenses
The price will be a set fee - of which Reliance is aware. Reliance already has some cellular licenses.
Tata is expected to go mobile as well.
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Reliance Makes A Bid For Full Mobility Thru CDMA
Sourav Majumdar & Mamuni Das
Mumbai/New Delhi, December 24: In a new twist to the ongoing battle between code division multiple access
(CDMA) and global system for mobile communication (GSM) lobbies, the Reliance group is understood to have
informally indicated its readiness to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to buy cellular licenses for fifth
and sixth operator slots in circles where it is not present.
The Reliance move, however, has a rider: It will buy the cellular licenses, as and when they are offered, but use
the CDMA platform instead of GSM. “The consumer is technology neutral. What he wants is mobility. He is not
concerned with anything else,” sources connected with the exercise told FE.
Currently, there is a cap limiting the number of players in each cellular circle to four. However, Union minister for
communications Pramod Mahajan has gone on record in favour of lifting the cap. The proposal is presently with
the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
Sources said the Tata group, which has also entered the limited mobility sector with its Indicom brand, has
evinced similar interests. However there was no confirmation from the Tatas.
Telecom secretary Vinod Vaish was unavailable for comment and sources close to Mr Mahajan said they were
ignorant of any such proposal. DoT officials, when contacted, said they didn’t have any information on the
Reliance and Tata proposals. “If these companies have made any such move, then it must be at a ‘higher level’,”
a top official who requested anonymity remarked.
The basic gameplan is to prove that the entry into WLL is not a “backdoor entry” by players offering CDMA
services, simply because they did not pay license fees. In a recent media interview, Reliance group chairman
Mukesh Ambani also made this clear when he said he was willing to pay a license fee and “go fully mobile.” He
has been quoted as saying that if more mobility adds value, paying a license fee would not be a problem and that
it was a business decision.
According to estimates, Reliance will have to shell out Rs 1,200 crore and the Tatas Rs 1,000 crore if they finally
buy the licenses. Reliance has cellular licenses in West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal
Pradesh, Assam and the North East while Tata group, through the Birla-Tata-AT&T alliance brand Idea, is
present in five circles including Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
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