MTNL has been hoping to become the third cellular operator in Delhi and Mumbai without payment of an entry fee.

The new draft also clears some grey areas of the first draft by proposing to permit cellular-service operators to provide all types of mobile services including data services, voice and non-voice messages and public call office (PCO) services.

DoT/MTNL or any additional operator would also have to pay a licence fee based on revenue sharing for cellular services. The basis for determining the entry fee and the selection of additional operators would depend on the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

The draft policy, which would be taken up by the group on telecom shortly, states that cellular and fixed-service providers will also be permitted directinter-connectivity with the Videsh Sanchar Nigam after the opening up of national long distance from January 1, 2000.

Inter-connectivity between service providers in different service areas, both in case of cellular-service providers and fixed-phone service providers, shall be reviewed in consultation with Trai and the same would be announced as a part of the structure for opening up national long distance by August 15, 1999.

It is proposed that the appropriate level of entry fee and percentage of revenue share arrangement for different service areas, both in the case of cellular and fixed-phone service providers, would be based on recommendations of Trai in a time-bound manner by June 30, 1999.

The objectives and targets of the policy as stated in the first draft, which came out in January-end, have been slightly modified. The new draft aims to provide high-speed data and multimedia capability using technologies including integrated services digital network (ISDN) to all towns with a populationgreater than two lakh by 2002.

The cellular service provider can utilise any type of network equipment including circuit and or packet switches that meet the relevant international telecommunication union and telecommunication engineering centre standards.