Vodafone critical of government move to not renew licences automatically

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.

Vodafone has also been consistently contributing several crores in revenues to the national exchequer. Clearly,in DoTs opinion,these aspects are not important for determining expediency.