October 25, 2001
'24'
GUIDELINES FOR FRESH LICENSES FOR PUBLIC MOBILE RADIO TRUNK SERVICES (PMRTS) ISSUED
Government has finalised the Guidelines for issue of fresh licences to Indian registered companies for Public Mobile Radio Trunk Services (PMRTS) in digital technology and have also decided to migrate the existing PMRTS Operators in new licensing regime in terms of New Telecom Policy (NTP-99) w.e.f. 1.11.2001. The licence period for new licences shall be 20 years.
Application form for seeking fresh PMRTS Licence can be obtained free of cost from Assistant Director General (VAS-II), DOT, Sanchar Bhavan, New Delhi or down loaded from Internet site www.dotindia.com.
Following are the broad guidelines for grant of fresh licence and migration of existing PMRTS operators in New Licensing Regime:
A. Fresh Licenses:
(i) Fresh PMRTS Licences shall be granted after assessment of availability of frequency spectrum in a particular service area after migration of willing existing operators to digital technology.
(ii) On receipt of application for operation of PMRTS, licenses shall be granted on non-exclusive basis subject to fulfillment of entry conditions. 1 MHz frequency spectrum shall be allotted at the time of grant of licence.
(iii) Fresh PMRTS Licensees shall be bound to use only digital technology.
(iv) The company applying for fresh license will have to furnish a "No Dues Certificate" in respect of all payments arising out of any Telecom Service License granted to the company or any promoter/partner or associate/sister concern thereof.
B. Existing licenses:
(i) The existing operators shall be allowed to migrate to digital technology at their option. The existing operators shall be given preference for migration to digital technology. At present 54 analog PMRTS licences from 17 companies are operating PMRTS services in various parts of the country.
(ii) The licence of existing operators, who are not willing to migrate to the new licensing regime, shall be extended, if requested, upto another ten years, so as to make the total licence period upto 15 years for continuing with analog systems, during which period the operators may change over to digital technology. However, no spectrum will be kept reserved for them.
(iii) Those operators willing to migrate to Digital Technology shall be allocated upto 1 MHz additional frequency Spectrum for Digital Technology and shall be directed to transfer their network positively within two years from the date of letter of confirmation in this regard. Failure to migrate the network to Digital system may result in cancellation of License Agreement. The licence agreement for these operators shall be extended, so as to make the total licence period of 20 years.
(iv) A minimum of 10 channels ( 25 Khz. each ) shall be reserved for the expansion of the analog systems during the period of migration from Analog to digital technology.
C. Conditions applicable to Existing as well as New Licensees :
1. Service Area :
(a) Metro Service Area: Metro Service Area for PMRTS licence shall be as applicable in the case of Cellular Services for the existing Cellular Service Operators.
(b) For other cities: The Service Area for other cities shall comprise of municipal limits of the city plus a distance of 10 KMs.
2. Entry Fee & Licence Fee:
(a) There shall be no entry fee.
(b) All PMRTS licensees including those using Captive Mobile Radio Trunked Service shall pay licence fee except for agencies working for public service such as Police, Fire and Government Security etc.
(d) For captive PMRTS Systems the licence fee shall be Rs.300/- per annum per terminal with a minimum of Rs.25000/- per annum per licensed area.
(e) There shall be separate charges (Royalty and Licence fee) for use of Radio Spectrum; the present arrangement of Spectrum Charging from PMRTS licences for commercial as well as captive system shall continue.
(f) Financial Bank Guarantee: The licensee shall be required to furnish a Financial Bank Guarantee of Rs. one lakh or of amount equivalent to six months licence fee of the previous year, whichever is higher, valid for at least one year and to be maintained for the entire period of the Licence Agreement.
3. Transfer of PMRTS Licences shall be permitted.
4. Interconnection:
5. Network connectivity shall be mutually negotiated and finalized between service providers subject to any regulation issued from time to time by TRAI under TRAI Act, 1997 as amended from time to time.
(a) PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) Connectivity: PSTN Connectivity shall be given as one PSTN line for 5 RF Channels (of 25 KHz each) to start with for analogue systems and one PCM link for new licenses for digital system.
(b) Inter-site Connectivity: Inter-site connectivity shall be permitted to PMRTS Service Providers between their own sites within the licensed area.
6. In the interest of security, suitable monitoring equipment as may be prescribed for each type of System used will be provided by the Licensee for monitoring.
7. The total foreign equity in the Applicant Company must not exceed 49% at any time during the entire licence period. Investment in the equity of the applicant company by an NRI /OCB/International Funding Agencies will be counted towards its foreign equity. In this regard, the Applicant Company shall submit a certificate from the competent authority to the effect that total foreign equity in the Applicant Company does not exceed 49%.