According to a Shyam Telecom official: "The company was forced to shelve its plans for entering South India, since other companies, which had submitted applications on the first day, had taken up the entire spectrum for South India, which will be allotted by the Government on a first come-first serve basis."

Meanwhile, post-Shyam Telecom's application, the total number of fixed service provider (FSP) licences applied for has increased to 54 and the number of companies applying for licences to eight. Spice Communications and Tata Teleservices, are also expected to submit their applications in a couple of days, according to sources.

Earlier, on Monday, Aircel Digilink had applied for FSP licences in all the 21 telecom circles, Reliance Telecom for 11 circles, Bharti Enterprises for eight, Hutchison Essar had applied for three licences, one by Fascel, and seven by HFCL. On Tuesday, Aircel Telecom, the cellular operator in Tamil Nadu had also submitted its application.

Lots of applications, limited licences However, industry experts, do not expect all the applications to translate into licences. "This has to be backed up with networth requirements for each of the circles. No company is as cash rich as to be able to meet the eligibility criteria for all the circles in the country," says a senior of official of a Delhi-based telecom company.

Networth requirements itself, for basic operator aspirants, vary from Rs 20 crore to Rs 1,000 crore in various categories of telecom circles, with the paid-up equity capital being 10 per cent of the required networth.

Basic licences: Shyam Telecom drops Southern expansion planWhile the entry fee also varies from Rs 1 crore to Rs 115 crore, the performance bank guarantee related to network roll-out also varies from Rs 4 crore to Rs 460 crore, separately for each of the circles.

According to industry experts, while companies like Bharti Enterprises and Reliance, which have long term National Long Distance plans, might still have some rationale for applying for more circles, all applications submitted by Essar might not translate into licences. "However, now they have blocked the spectrum and have thus gained the first right to refusal," explain industry analysts.

Meanwhile, officials of Bharti Enterprises also confirmed that till now, the Group has finalized plans to provide basic services in only four out of eight circles, for which it has submitted applications. "We have firmed up plans to operate cellular services in Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, as of now and still evaluating the rest of the circles where we have submitted applications," said Mr Akhil Gupta, managing director, Bharti Enterprises. Apart from these four circles, Bharti Enterprises has also submitted applications for FSP licences in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Punjab.