S. TEL LTD. Vs. UNION OF INDIA (UOI)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER seeks quashing of the impugned Press Release dated 10.01.2008 issued by the Respondent to the extent that it deprives the petitioner from being granted Letters of Intent for USA Licences for 16 circles applied for after 25.9.2007 but before the government announcement cut -off date of 1st October, 2007.

(2.) AS per the petition providing of Cellular Mobile Services (Services) was governed by the National Telecom Policy (NTP 1994), which was announced in the year 1994. The services are offered using 2G technologies, namely, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM Services) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA Services). GSM Service is being provided since 1994 -1995 and CDMA Service is being provided since 1997 -1998. Prior to 1999, all licenses were issued based on the highest bids received from the applications. There was a cap as regards the maximum number of operators which was restricted to two for each service area. The telecom service was liberalized by the National Telecom Policy (NTP 1999), which introduced various changes including the fixed one time entry fee and ongoing revenue sharing for licence, increase the licensees to four operators, which included BSNL as the third operator and the fourth operator was chosen based on highest bids received from applicants. This process was completed in the year 2000. Accordingly, all licensees subsequently migrated from fixed licence fee regime to revenue share regime. From 2003, the service providers were permitted to choose the preferred technology i.e. GSM, CDMA or any other technology, for providing the service under a Composite Unified Access Service Licence and unlimited mobility was permitted for CDMA service as well. However, each of the respective licensees was allowed to provide the service using the chosen technology and not all the technologies. The cap for maximum number of operators was also removed and all aspiring applicants who were willing to pay the entry fee paid by the fourth operator and agreed to abide by revenue share conditions, were made eligible to obtain licences.

(3.) ON 12.06.2007 a consultation paper was issued by the TRAI in respect of the various issues referred to it in the above mentioned communication dated 13.04.2007. One of the Issues in the said consultation paper was as to whether the number of service providers in each area should be limited. The consultation paper dealt with the issue, namely, determining a cap on number of access provider in each service area in Chapter 6 of the said paper. The TRAI also formulated two questions for ready reference: