In Ever since Qulacomms application for ISP licenses in the circles of Mumbai, Delhi, Kerala and Haryana, where it had won BWA spectrum in auctions held last year, had been rejected, the company had been involved in a tug of war with DoT. However, now there is hope that Qulacomms 4G services might take off.
According to sources, the Department of Telecom has offered to give one licence to the US chipmaker for broadband services. On October 10th DoT has sent a letter to the company asking it to submit bank guarantee and non-conditional acceptance to the offer. However, it is still unclear how DoT plans to deal with the issue of Qualcomm now applying for the licence within 90 days of being awarded the spectrum.
In the BWA spectrum auctions held last year, Qualcomm had formed four different companies to apply for ISP licenses in the circles of Mumbai, Delhi, Kerala and Haryana. In all four it had won BWA spectrum. However, the application for ISP licenses was recently rejected by the DoT on the grounds that the department wasn't introduced to the four different entities within the stipulated time frame of 90 days after the auction.
Some top DoT sources have been quoted in media saying that Qualcomm had written to DoT saying that they were willing to take one licence instead of four. However, Qualcomm has not openly commented on the latest development.
Qualcomm has already filed an appeal with telecom tribunal. The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal, on September 28, passed an interim order, restrained the DoT from allotting the BWA spectrum earmarked for Qualcomm to any other operator till further orders.
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