The telecom department has decided to grant an Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence to American chipmaker Qualcomm whose application had been rejected initially.
?A decision has been taken to grant an ISP licence to the company,? telecom secretary R Chandrasekhar said. The decision is with respect to one subsidiary designated by the company as a nominee, he said.
?Qualcomm has received a letter dated October 10 from the department of telecommunications offering to grant us a licence covering all the service areas for which we won spectrum,? the company said in response to a query on Tuesday. Qualcomm had won spectrum for broadband and wireless access in four circles paying about $1 billion in an auction last year and had named four subsidiary companies as nominees for the circles.
Last month, the telecom ministry had rejected its application for an ISP licence seeking clarification over four different nominee companies and also citing a delay in submission of the application.
Qualcomm had won the spectrum in Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala and Haryana. An ISP licence is necessary for carrying out the BWA operations.
Last month, in an interim order on a petition by Qualcomm, telecom tribunal TDSAT had stayed any decision to cancel the BWA spectrum licences the company had won and restrained it from allotting it to any other operator.
On Monday, Chandrasekar had told FE that there had been issues regarding the company’s interpretation of the notice-inviting-applications (NIA) and which were being examined. ?We are fully aware and adhere to the fact that there’s a need to follow the terms and conditions of the NIA and maintain a conducive environment for investment and any decision taken will be within this norm,? he had said in an interview.