Vodafone has claimed the government decision not to automatically renew its licence for telecom services and instead ask it to bid in auctions "is against the interests of our several million customers".
In a late night response to the rejection from the department of telecommunications of its plea for renewal of its licenses in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata circles, the country's second largest telecom operator has said "there appears to be no acknowledgment by (the department) of the full and faithful operation of the licence for 18 years — for being a pioneer and entering the market when there was no concept of mobile telephony in India".
The Vodafone licenses in these three circles come up for renewal in November 2014. The operator is seeking to extend the licenses for another 10 years in these three circles that were granted in 1994, with 20-year tenures for each.
The company has claimed it should get the extensions without an auction under a clause of the licence agreement which provides for the same on mutually agreed terms. But the centre expects to earn a revenue of about Rs 20,000 crore from the auctions for the 900 MHz band spectrum in 2013-14.
The exact date for the auctions will of course be declared later. The centre also feels that extension of the spectrum without using the auction route will attract fresh censure from the government auditor. These circles are also the most valuable telecom regions in the country.
Vodafone India has about 150 million subscribers. In the three circles under dispute, it owns 24 MHz in the 900 MHz band.
"Vodafone is deeply disappointed with the summary rejection of its request for extension of its licenses in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata service areas by DoT", the company statement added.
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