Govt to let Qualcomm clear Tulip Telecom dues

The government today said it is ready to accept US-based chipmaker Qualcomm's offer to clear Rs 410-crore dues of its Indian partner Tulip Telecom so that the company gets a licence for wireless broadband services.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) informed the telecom tribunal TDSAT today that it was ready to accept the offer of Qualcomm with some minor modifications.

The tribunal asked Qualcomm to deposit the money to DoT, which would issue licence to the US-based firm within a week.

However, regarding spectrum, the tribunal did not assure anything to Qualcomm and said the DoT would not "adopt any adversarial approach" while deciding on grant of spectrum.

The TDSAT bench, headed by Chairman Jutice S B Sinha, further asked DoT to dispose the application of Qualcomm for BWA spectrum expeditiously.

Qualcomm has moved an application before the TDSAT to provide bank guarantee of the disputed amount claimed by the DoT from its partner.

Tulip is a 13% shareholder in the consortium which had bid for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum along with Qualcomm. As per the rules, operators have to get a no-dues certificate from DoT for obtaining the licences.