In a major relief for Qualcomm Inc, the telecom tribunal on Wednesday stayed the department of telecommunications? (DoT) order to cancel the company?s Internet service provider (ISP) licence application.
Further, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) bench headed by its chairman, Justice SB Sinha, restrained the DoT from allotting the BWA spectrum earmarked for Qualcomm to any other operator till further orders.
Last week, Qualcomm Inc announced that it had received a communication from DoT rejecting its ISP licence application. The reason given for this was that the date when DoT considered the company?s application complete was beyond the stipulated time.
While Qualcomm maintained that it had filed its application well within the three-month deadline, which began on the date the DoT issued the letter of intent to its locally incorporated subsidiaries, July 13, DoT considered the application complete on December 20. This was the date when Qualcomm last replied to the government?s queries ? which were any way made beyond the stipulated deadline ? regarding its locally incorporated companies.
The licence is imperative for the company to undertake any operations with the BWA spectrum it won in four out of the 22 circles. The company paid a total of $1 billion for 20 Mhz of unpaired spectrum in each of its four circles in an auction last year. The news sent the company officials into a tizzy as apart from the inability to use the spectrum, DoT?s rejection also implied the risk of forfeiting the entire $1 billion paid by the company.
Consequently, the San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc challenged DoT?s decision to reject its ISP licence application.
While staying the DoT?s cancellation, TDSAT also stayed the government from forfeiting the bid amount. Asking the DoT to file a reply to Qualcomm?s plea within two weeks, TDSAT posted the matter for the next hearing on October 20.
Qualcomm had the bagged BWA spectrum in the Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala circles and LoIs was allotted to the company.
During the proceedings, senior advocate CA Sundaram, appearing for Qualcomm, said its application for an ISP licence was rejected. This was ostensibly on the basis that it had appointed four nominees for the spectrum, among other reasons. Sundaram contended that Qualcomm had bid for four circles and so it had made four nominees for the respective circles.
He further contended that it was according to the terms and conditions of the NIA (Notice Inviting Applications) that one nominee was to be appointed for each circle.
However, advocates appearing for the DoT said it was against giving spectrum to four different nominees of Qualcomm at a time.
In its petition, the company expressed fear that its licence may be revoked and the spectrum may be allotted to someone else. Moreover, according to the terms and conditions of the contract, the entire sum paid could be forfeited if the spectrum allotment was cancelled, the company said.