2G ruling: Tata Tele to file review petition

[iS THAT ME]

2G ruling: Tata Tele to file review petition

Tata Teleservices Ltd on Monday said it has been advised to file a review petition in the Supreme Court seeking redressal on the 2G order. While the company welcomed the judgment that spectrum will be allotted through auctions, it said that it has been unfairly clubbed with new players who divested their stake to foreign operators.

“At the time when NTT Docomo invested in Tata Teleservices, it had been in operations for over 12 years, already had 17 licences, had reached an annual turnover of Rs 6,000 crore, had 3,000 employees, about 100 offices, 33 million subscribers, 60,000 km of fiber, an NLD business, 38 per cent investments in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd and 100 per cent investments in its tower subsidiary,” the company said.

“The clubbing of TTL with two licensees who had just entered the telecom business from the real estate sector appears to have also overlooked this and the fact that only three new licences were granted to TTL in January 2008, that these were for Assam, North-East and Jammu & Kashmir, and most of all, these were CDMA licences,” it added.

The Tata company said that the investment made by its strategic partner NTT Docomo was not on account of these three licences but on account of TTL's established position as one of the strong players in the telecom field, apart from its strong Tata brand.

The Supreme Court has ordered the Government to cancel 122 licences issued in January 2008, including three licences given to Tata Teleservices.

Source