DoT awards licences to 5 new players

According to sources, the DoT is expected to issue the new players start-up spectrum in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa and Bihar as all of these circles (or service areas) have surplus spectrum available.

Orissa currently constitutes almost 18 per cent of the total all-India subscriber-base with just under 4 million GSM subscribers. At the moment there are only four telecom players in the state.

On April 15, the DoT cleared the release of 22 MHz to five new telecom licensees in Tamil Nadu. Datacom Solutions, Idea Cellular, Unitech group, Swan Telecom and Loop Telecom. The companies were allocated 4.4 MHz of spectrum each to start operations.

Meanwhile, in another development, Reliance Communication, part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, was allotted CDMA spectrum for the North Eastern states and Assam. With this the compnay has been allocated spectrum in all the circles across the country in CDMA. Earlier this month, Tata Teleservices was allocated CDMA spectrum in three circles