Govt may allow Bharti migrate to a Unified License

This would be music to the ears of not just Bharti Airtel but most telcos whose licenses are coming up for renewal shortly. It seems the Department of Telecom is willing to offer a Unified License (UL) to telcos even when they set conditions - as Bharti has done. A UL allows operators to offer telephone, internet and related communications services under a single license and as permits come up for renewal from next year, telcos were beginning to get jittery over license renewal when myriad issues are still pending resolution. A department within DoT has now said that Bharti be granted UL despite several conditions it has set. DoT’s Access Services department has sought approval of Telecom Secretary on the matter.[caption id=“attachment_1249315” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Bharti Airtel chief Sunil Bharti Mittal. Reuters[/caption] “We may accept the request of Bharti to apply for migration from UASL (existing licence) to UL in a prescribed application format given in UL guidelines,” the AS wing has said. Firspost has reviewed this communication. Bharti had earlier listed as many as seven different issues in which it is fighting against DoT in the courts and had said that migration to a UL license should be allowed without these cases getting impacted. Migration to UL is critical for all telcos. Earlier, telcos had to take separate licenses for providing telephony, internet services etc. and pay license fees to the government based on the services they provided and the regions they operated in. Under the new rules, they can convert their existing licenses into a unified license by paying a fee to the government. Now, spectrum is delinked from licenses and therefore, whenever any license in any telecom circles comes up for renewal, a telco will have to migrate to UL while bidding for spectrum separately. That the DoT is taking a sympathetic view in the UL matter is evident from what a senior official told Firstpost recently. “If everyone has a problem with UL, we may review the process. We need to see if everyone should be forced to migrate to UL”. This official said no decision has as yet been taken on whether the mandatory migration to UL will be waived. Earlier this month, Bharti had requested for UL while pointing out that it was fighting DoT in seven matters such as extension of licence, one-time fee, spectrum usage charges and definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR). Bharti has also dragged the DoT to court over its 3G intra-circle roaming ban. Bharti made it clear that terms and conditions of the UL, any enhancement of bank guarantees and any demands raised by the DoT in future will be subject to final outcome of these court cases. Licenses of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are set for renewal next year and the Government had earlier rejected their applications for extending the permits.