Addressing the economic editors' conference, he said that the group washeaded by PS Saran, secretary, DoTS, and would work in conjunction with aprivate consultant to formulate the corporatisation report. "The consultantwould be appointed soon", he said.

Paswan added that no decision had yet been taken on extending the November30 deadline for private telecom operators to pay up the remaining licencefee dues. "We are yet to recieve any formal request on this account and willconsider it only if the operators approach us", he added.

The minister added that the department of telecommunication was consideringthe recommendations of Attorney General Soli Sorabajee on the cancellationof licences of three cellphone operators including Koshika Telecom.

Paswan said that Koshika had made certain representations against thecancellation on which the government had sought the recommendations of theAttorney General. "We will take a decision soon", he added.

Asked about the dispute over the calling party pays (CPP) regime and theongoing legal battle with TRAI, Paswan clarified that the government hadagreed to the introduction of the CPP regime.

"The dispute was only with regard to sharing of revenue between serviceproviders", he said. DoTS has gone to court as per the legal advice given bythe attorney general, Paswan added. He added that the process forout-of-court settlement of cases between MTNL and TRAI could happen.

"Matters like CPP should be resolved among the concerned parties withoutgoing to court", he added. He also hinted at bringing necessary amendmentsin the TRAI Act, if required, in order to give more powers to the regulator.He, however, refused to give any time-frame for the same. "We are planningto convene a joint meeting of TRAI, private service providers and DoT todiscuss all issues," he added. On the proposed entry of DoTS as thirdcellular operator in various telecom circles, Paswan said that DoTS plannedto launch mobile services at few places by middle of next year. He said thatgovernment was committed to open the domestic long distance call for privatecompetition from January 1, 2000, but was yet to receive the recommendationsfrom TRAI.