New Delhi, Sept 19: Despite the ongoing controversy over WLL telephony, the Tata Group has applied for basic telecom licences in four more states -- Punjab, Haryana, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh (West) -- taking the tally to 10. Tatas are already offering basic telecom services including WLL mobile in Delhi, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, which was acquired from Hughes.
When contacted official sources in the Department of Telecom confirmed that the Ratan Tata owned Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) has applied for four licences and said the application was being processed.
The application by Tatas for acquiring more licenses at this juncture, when the Trai has initiated a process of unification of basic and cellular licences in the wake of the fight between the two over the scope and legality of WLL mobile services, is an indication of full-fledged competition in basic telephony.
As per July 2003 figures, TTSL has a subscriber base of over 8.4 lakh of both wireless and wireline connections.
Bureau Report