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The Country is divided into 23 Service Areas
consisting of 19 Telecom Circle Service Areas and 4 Metro Service Areas
for providing Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS).
In terms of National Telecom Policy (NTP)-1994, the
first phase of liberalization in mobile telephone service started with
issue of 8 licenses for CMTS in the 4 metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai,
Calcutta and Chennai to 8 private companies in November 1994.
Subsequently, 34 licenses for 18 Territorial Telecom Circles were also
issued to 14 private companies during 1995 to 1998. During this period a
maximum of two licenses were granted for CMTS in each service area and
these licensees were called 1st & 2nd cellular licensees. These licensees
were to pay fixed amount of license fees annually based on the agreed
amount during the bidding process. Subsequently, they were permitted to
migrate to New Telecom Policy (NTP) 1999 regime wherein they are required
to pay License fee based on revenue share, which is effective from 1st
August, 1999.
State owned Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) {Mahanager
Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)}
were issued licenses for provision of CMTS as third operator in various
parts of the country. Further, 17 fresh licenses have been issued to
private companies as fourth cellular operator in September/ October, 2001,
one each in 4 Metro cities and 13 Telecom Circles.
As per conditions of the License Agreement, cellular
operators are free to provide, within their area of operation, all types
of mobile services including voice and non-voice messages, data services
and Public Call Offices (PCOs) utilizing any type of network equipment,
including circuit and/or package switches that meet the relevant
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) /Telecom Engineering Centre
(TEC) standards.
With effect from 1st April 2004, the license fee,
excluding spectrum charges for cellular mobile telephone services is 10%
of "Adjusted Gross Revenue" (AGR) for Metro Service Areas and category `A'
circles, 8% of AGR for category `B' Circles and 6% of AGR for category `C'
Circles.
The old cellular licensees (1st and 2nd CMTS
licensees) in telecom circles have been given additional concession for a
period of 4 years w.e.f. 1st April 2004 in the license fee. The license
fee, excluding spectrum charges for old cellular licensees (1st and 2nd
CMTS licensees) in telecom circles is 8% of "Adjusted Gross Revenue" (AGR)
for category `A' circles, 6% of AGR for category `B' Circles and 5% of AGR
for category `C' Circles for a period of 4 years w.e.f. 1st April 2004.
In addition to license fees, the CMTS licensees pay
spectrum charges on revenue share basis of 2% of AGR for spectrum up to
4.4 MHz. For spectrum beyond 4.2 MHz up to 6.2 MHz, they are required to
pay additional charges @1% of AGR. For spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz, which
shall be given if the subscriber base is more than 5 Lacs, they are
required to pay additional 1% of AGR. Allocation of spectrum beyond 6.2
MHz is subject to availability; however, spectrum allocation would be
limited to a maximum of 10MHz + 10MHz per operator in a service area. Such
additional allocation could be considered only after a suitable subscriber
base, as may be prescribed, is reached.
Consequent upon announcement of
guidelines for Unified Access (Basic& Cellular) Services licenses on
11.11.2003, some of the CMTS operators have been permitted to migrate from
CMTS License to Unified Access Service License (UASL).
No
new CMTS and Basic service licenses are being awarded after issuing the
guidelines for Unified access Service Licence(UASL).
The status of total licensees as on 31st March 2008 is as follows
|
BASIC LICENSEES |
: |
2 |
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CMTS LICENSEES |
: |
39 |
|
UAS LICENSEES |
: |
240 |
|
TOTAL LICENSEES |
: |
281 |
Dialing procedures have been
simplified in respect of Mumbai Metro and Maharashtra, Chennai Metro
and Tamilnadu, Kolkata Metro and West Bengal and UP West & UP East Circle.
Also amendment has been issued in respect of merger of Tamilnadu Telecom
Circle and Chennai Metro.
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