This move, to come into effect from October 31, is to ensure uninterrupted service, the release said. Hutchison Max chief operating officer Sandip Das said the transfer applied only to Max Page's (the paging service of Hutchison Max) Punjab state licence. Services in the seven cities for which the company holds licences other than Punjab - Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune and Vadodara - will continue to be provided by Max Page.

Das said that it was at present enviable for two operators to co-exist and continue services in the Punjab circle where the growth in subscriber base has been well below expectations. Max Page has arrived ata favourable arrangement with Punwire, the other paging-service operator in the circle, which will allow the subscribers of Max Page in the Punjab circle to transfer to Punwire thereby getting uninterrupted paging service.

"We are in a situation today where 60 per cent to 70 per cent of revenues in telecom service businesses are going to the government in one form or another, a major component of which is the licence fee. In this context, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain business in Punjab where the subscriber ramp-up is very low and basic paging infrastructure has been set up in various cities," Das said in the release.

According to him, operators have requested for an extension in the licence fee period as well as support on spreading infrastructure through V-Sat connectivity to lower infrastructural costs. "However, the Department of Telecommunications has been unable to respond to these proposals and, at the end, has decided to cancel our Punjab licence; this in turn makes the transferpossible," Das added.