In less than 24 hours of issuance of guidelines on unified licence, Reliance Infocomm on Wednesday paid about Rs 1542.5 crore (Rs 15.42 billion) to government to migrate to new single licence regime in 16 circles, but opted to stay out of unification in West Bengal, which includes Kolkata circle.
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According to sources in the department of telecom, Reliance has made an application to move to unified access services licence and made an upfront payment of Rs 1,542.5
crore, of which Rs 1,042 crore (Rs 10.42 billion) is towards entry fee and the balance towards penalty imposed on them for offering full mobility on their WLL phones.
When contacted Telecom Commission chairman Vinod Vaish confirmed the receipt of a letter from Reliance Infocomm, but refused to give details.
According to sources, Reliance Infocomm has opted out to stay out of unification in West Bengal circle (which includes Kolkata also) and thus paid about Rs 79.51 crore (Rs 795.1 million) less.
With this, Reliance will be able to offer fully mobile services on its WLL phones.
Till now Reliance was offering services like call forwarding and multiple registration for which the company was asked to pay penalty of Rs 526 crore (Rs 5.26 billion) as roaming-like services were construed to be against the spirit of the licence norms.