The Cabinet has approved the New Telecom Policy 2012 back in May 2012 which was the main reason for the introduction of free roaming across the country at a nominal cost and the upcoming Full Mobile Number Portability (MNP). It also stressed on single license across India under a new unified licence regime that prevents a separate license for the operators. Now MTS India, which operates under Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL) has announced that they have received its Unified Telecom License.
This would let them offer neutral telecom services for a period of 20 years and also makes them the first telecom operator in the country to be a part of Unified Licensing regime.
Regarding this, Dmitry Shukov, Chief Executive Officer, SSTL said,
We are delighted to get the Unified License. This is a positive development and would bring clarity in the operating environment for the Company. We are now looking forward to the allotment of the third carrier of spectrum that we had won in the March 2013 auctions.
SSTL won license in 800 MHz CDMA spectrum auction in eight circles back in March 2013 that includes, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Tamil Nadu, UP (West) and West Bengal. It also operates in Rajasthan that was not affected by last year’s Supreme Court order, in which it lost its license in 21 circles.