DoT sends unified licensing norms for law ministry nod

Department of Telecommunication has sent the unified licensing regime guidelines for the low ministry approval, reports Malvika Jain of CNBC-TV18.

These guidelines have been in the works for a while. Once approved mobile companies will have have to mandatorily move to the unified licensing regime, under which they will be allowed to offer all forms of communication under a single permit. Also read: CCI seeks information from Telecom Min on spectrum auctions
At present, companies need to get different licences for different types of services such as the internet, mobile and long distance calls.
In the guidelines, definition of cross holding which has been one of the contentious issue is tweaked, but 10 percent cap for promoter company remains. According to the guideline a promoter company which is holding 10 percent stake in telecom company can not hold simililar take in another company.
The definition of promoter has also been tweaked. Now government, banks and financial institutions will not be considered as promoter for computing the cross holding limit. Besides, now the telecom companies will be able to offer all 9 telecom services by paying Rs 15 crore. At this stage telecom companies need a separate 2G licence, separate 3G licence, separate 4G licence to offer different types of services.