GOT-IT opts for parity on WiLL
New Delhi: The Group of Telecom and IT has submitted its report on limited mobility, recommending parity on interconnect tariffs to both basic and cellular operators.

Accordingly, basic operators will have to pay 95 per cent of their revenues to BSNL/MTNL as interconnect tariffs and retain only 5 per cent of the revenues.

Basic operators offering fixed line services are currently required to pay only 40 per cent of the revenues to the long distance carrier and retain 60 per cent.

The report also restricts mobility in WiLL services to a radius of 25 km. The existing guidelines permit mobility within a short distance calling area up to a radius of 40 km.
The report has also laid down a road map for rolling out the network for basic telecom operators. Telecom circles have been sub-divided into urban, semi-urban and rural areas. There are different roll-out obligations for the three areas and operators will have to meet the roll-out obligations.

Thus basic operators wanting to provide limited mobility at Rs 1.20 per three minute (same as the existing tariffs for fixed line services) will be given spectrum in groups of three. Rollout of limited mobility in an urban area will be given along with rollout in one rural area and one semi-urban area. This is being done to increase the teledensity in the country.

The recommendations have been submitted to the Prime Minister for his decision.
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Sivasankaran twist to limited mobility tangle
New Delhi: There is a new twist to the controversy over granting limited mobility to basic operators. Now C Sivasankaran, the maverick entrepreneur, has bid to pay Rs 2,500 crore to get 5 megahertz of spectrum across India.

He has shot off a letter to the Prime Minister, spelling out his offer, to be paid by his Sterling Infotech group. This would yield the government a total sum of Rs 10,000 crore through its allocation of 20 MHz, he says. It will also put an end to the limited mobility controversy.

What is interesting is that under the department of Telecom's (DoT) limited mobility policy, fixed service providers were allowed to enter mobile markets without paying any fees for a mobile licence or for spectrum, to the government. He has shot off these letters to the PM, the finance minister (who heads GoT-IT), the TRAI and Telecom Commission chairman Shyamal Ghosh, further driving the decision makers into a dilemma.

Sivasankaran, chairman of the Sterling Infotech Group, is known for pulling off coups and introducing revolutionary market practices. In Delhi, he was the one who first sold his stake in Sterling Cellular to Swisscom, who later bought part of its back and then and sold it to Hutchison, both deals made at a profit. In Tamil Nadu, Sivasankaran’s company, Srinivasa Telecom, has priced local as well as long-distance calls at Rs 2 per minute, putting competition on the wrong foot. Sivasankaran has also been credited with bringing down computer prices to a third in the eighties, as also internet access charges in the late nineties.
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Two way fungibility for ADRs/GDRs
New Delhi: The government has finalised the norms for extending two-way fungibility to companies tapping the overseas markets. Under the norms, companies will be permitted to maintain the levels of GDRs/ADRs without seeking fresh government clearances.
Accordingly, companies will be permitted to reissue ADRs/GDRs up to the level for which they hold an original clearance without seeking a fresh approval every time a depository-holder divests his holding.
Procedurally, the ADRs/GDRs have to be converted into shares before they can be divested in the domestic market. Every time a conversion takes place, companies have to seek government permission to reissue the depositories.
Most companies have been arguing that they should be permitted flexibility in this regard, since a smaller float in the international market leads to thin trading and faulty price realisation.
Currently, about 20 Indian companies have issued ADRs/GDRs and all these companies stand to gain by the relaxation.
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