But in a curious move, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) set the ball rolling by calling for fresh licences in September 2007. Some 300 new applications were received, including those from completely unrelated sectors such as real estate and consumer electronics. And, inexplicably, the last date for submission of the application was advanced by a week. Among those that managed to get their foot in the door within the revised deadline, 122 new licences across India were issued in January 2008 to 9-10 operators, some existing and several new. And this at a price, based on rates frozen in 2001, when mobile services were yet to take off in any meaningful way.
The licence fee fixed per-operator (Rs 1,651 crore for pan-India operations) has become the biggest bone of contention, and has led to the huge outcry over the alleged loss to the exchequer. The licence came with a free start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz.
Back in 2001 operators were hardly able to make a dent in terms of meaningful subscriber additions and almost all of them were loss-making.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/11/16/stories/2010111653310800.htm
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