Sify targets voice telecom pie via VoIP

On 25 Aug 2009, 1909 hrs IST, Niranjana Ramesh, ET Bureau at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Sify-targets-voice-telecom-pie-via-VoIP/articleshow/4933615.cms

CHENNAI: Sify Technologies, a pioneer among private internet service providers (ISP) in India with 5.7 lakh subscribers and a 5.8% market share, is now targeting yet another area of telecommunications for a first mover advantage – Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), for the mass consumer market, as and when government regulation permits it within the country.

“It is a foregone conclusion that we would have a tremendous edge in the VoIP space, technically, when such telephony is allowed in India,” said Sify chief architect (CTO) Arvind Mathur. “Sify’s ISP network is spread across India covering all states with 900 points of presence.” A point of presence (POP) in internet protocol is analogous to a base station or a telecom tower in mobile telephony. But, the capacity of a POP is expandable based on the nodes attached to it.

Sify also holds significant spectrum in the 2.4 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequency bands. 2.4 GHz has, recently, been chosen for the purpose of Wimax services in India, and is yet to be auctioned off. “We will comply by whatever regulation that the government stipulates for the usage of such spectrum,” Mr.Mathur said. “But, we hold enough spectrum to be able to effectively provide last mile connectivity as well as POP to POP connectivity through the wireless mode. We have also invested in buying or leasing cable from carriers for long distance connectivity.”

The company has, in the past few years, ramped up its data centre capacity to augment its core competency of internet protocol based communication. It has invested Rs.100 crore in building data centers in different locations with a total capacity of 2 lakh square feet, to process and store all the transactions – voice or text – that goes via Sify’s IP network.

Presently, the company’s revenues are more leveraged from the managed network and ICT services that it provides to its corporate and enterprise customers. The share of corporate services in the company’s revenues has gone up from 55% to 70% over the past three years, while that of retail service has gone down from 39% to 21% in the same period of time.

“But, when triple play (voice, video, data) is allowed using internet protocol, as it is using mobile telephony today, we will have our network and data centers all ready to expand operations in the consumer market,” Mr.Mathur said. The company has been providing VoIP services for international calls as well as the BPO industry. It presently has 150 BPO customers, doing 100 million minutes of voice calls annually. It also provides virtualisation, cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS) applications and solutions to its clients.

Deutsche Telekom Eyes Indian ISP Space; Devas Multimedia Looks To Raise Funds

From http://www.medianama.com/2009/08/223-deutsche-telekom-eyes-indian-isp-space-devas-multimedia-looks-to-raise-funds/ on August 24, 2009

By Preethi J

German telecom conglomerate Deutsche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile in USA, is planning to join the Internet Service Provider arena in India. According to a MarketWatch report, the telco is planning to set up a high-capacity radio network for quick Internet connections in metropolitan areas of India come next year.

I wonder if we need yet another ISP in India, with already a number of incumbent players – Reliance, Tata Indicom, MTNL, BSNL, Hathaway, Tikona, Sify and Bharti Airtel, and France Telecom, Vodafone and DEN Networks also planning ISPs. With the last mile still closed, wireless is being seen as the way to go; which is where Devas Multimedia comes in.

Devas MultiMedia:Looking To Raise Funds

Deutsche Telekom received permission from India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) last year to invest Rs. 317.85 crore into Devas Multimedia, a little known Bangalore-based wireless services company, which was working on a long term Mobile TV (DMB) project with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). DT has acquired 17% stake in Devas.

Interestingly enough, Devas is looking to raise funds. The company, which already has Telecom Ventures and Columbia Capital as investors, apart from Deutsche Telekom, has a proposal pending with the FIPB for permission to “induct fresh foreign equity participation with the induction of a new foreign collaborator.”

Devas is a curious case: little is known about it, and it still appears to be in stealth mode:  there’s no website and there is little information on it except of it’s work with ISRO and its backers.

India desperately needs a catalyst to boost Internet penetration: Internet growth in July 2009 in India has actually fallen to 2.7% from 3.4% in June and 6.3% in May 2009. Besides the well known issues of delinking last mile access and ISP licensing which are throttling growth, other issues Deutsche Telekom will need to grapple with are low PC adoption and lack of Indic language content.

Companies Eying ISP Space In India

Earlier this year, France Telecom also entered India through Equant Network Services, its joint venture with Emery Technologies with the intention of launching Internet services;  Vodafone too announced its entry. The latest to announce plans of becoming an Internet service provider is DEN Networks, a cable TV company which is planning to go public to raise funds.

The Wireline Alternative: Broadband Over Power

Research and experiments on Broadband over Power Lines have been on for years – news about it pops up every few months. Indian Express has the latest: about Bengal Engineering and Science University professors and CESC have implemented Broadband over Power in two housing estates in Kolkata. The copper wires that supply electricity to double as broadband connections and installing a customer premise equipment that decodes the signals and brings them to your computer. But if it’s that simple, why is it taking so long to materialise? The government recently deferred an application by Powermax Communications, a provider of power transmission  and distribution management systems and broadband over power services, to increase foreign equity participation.

Bharti’s Chairman Grows More Confident of MTN Deal

From http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125084972837849039.html?mod=rss_india_news on August 24, 2009

By COSTAS PARIS

Bharti Airtel Ltd. Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Mittal said the second extension to talks with MTN Group Ltd. of South Africa signals that a deal may be worked out this time around.

“It gives us more confidence, but you never know with these things until the last moment,” Mr. Mittal said in an interview Friday.

Mr. Mittal’s comments came after Bharti and MTN extended their talks until Sept. 30 without giving a reason.

MTN and Bharti, India’s largest mobile-phone operator by subscribers, in May revived talks to create a telecommunications company with annual revenue of at least $20 billion and 200 million subscribers.

People familiar with the situation said Friday that Bharti and MTN have extended their talks to settle differences on pricing and the makeup of the combined entity’s board. The two companies have described their prospective deal as a $23 billion merger.

Mr. Mittal said he wasn’t in a position to confirm or deny whether Bharti would sweeten its offer.

A second person said MTN’s management and some shareholders are asking for an additional $1 billion from Bharti to complete the deal.

The person said there will be more clarity when MTN releases its half-year earnings on Thursday.

The basic terms announced in May would see Bharti accumulate a 49% stake in MTN, buying a stake directly for cash and newly issued global depository receipts, plus receiving MTN shares as part of the swap.

MTN would buy a 25% stake in Bharti for $2.9 billion in cash plus new shares, while stock received by its shareholders would take its stake in Bharti to about 36%.

Wireless Tata Telecom Has Bid for Aircel’s Tower Operations

At http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125084655798248997.html?mod=rss_india_news on August 21, 2009

By DEEPALI GUPTA

MUMBAI — India’s Wireless Tata Telecom Infrastructure Ltd., or WTTL, has made an initial bid for the telecom towers of mobile-phone operator Aircel Ltd., a director of the company that controls WTTL said Friday.

“We are currently studying Aircel assets after making an initial bid,” Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Ltd. Director Sunil Kanoria told Dow Jones Newswires.

WTTL is the second company after GTL Infrastructure Ltd. to confirm an interest in the tower operations of unlisted Aircel, in which Malaysia’s Maxis Communications BHD holds 74%.

Demand for passive network infrastructure such as towers has boomed in India – the world’s fastest-growing telecom market – as new mobile providers opt for leasing the infrastructure to reduce costs and roll out services faster.

Besides independent infrastructure providers such as GTL and WTTL, the other main providers of telecom towers in the country include Indus Towers Ltd. and Reliance Infratel Ltd.

Mr. Kanoria declined to give an estimate on the size or value of the stake WTTL plans to buy. GTL also hasn’t yet announced the details of its bid.

Local media reports have said Aircel was planning to sell a 51% stake in its tower business. Analysts estimate Aircel’s about 12,000 towers are valued at around 5 million rupees-6 million rupees ($102,312-$123,000) each.

Aircel officials weren’t available for comment.

WTTL is the result of a merger of the telecom tower operations of Tata group’s Tata Teleservices Ltd. and Quippo in January. While Tata Teleservices holds 51% of WTTL, its remaining stake and management control is with Quippo.

The company now has about 25,000 towers. At the time of the deal in January, the combined entity had about 18,000 towers, which gave it an enterprise value of 130 billion rupees.

WTTL has a target of having 60,000 towers in two years, excluding any addition from a potential acquisition of Aircel’s tower operations, Mr. Kanoria said.

It plans to spend 50 billion rupees to 55 billion rupees on building towers over the next two years, he said.

The expansion program is well funded for around six months, Mr. Kanoria said. For subsequent expenditure, the company plans to raise funds through debt and may also consider the equity route, he said.

Funds may be raised from existing shareholders or from an institution, Mr. Kanoria said. Eventually the company would look at a public listing, he added, without elaborating.

Nokia to Offer Phone Installments in India

From http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125067421010342617.html?mod=rss_india_news on August 19, 2009

By R. JAI KRISHNA

NEW DELHI — Nokia Corp. said it is looking to make handsets more accessible and affordable in India, the world’s fastest-growing and second-largest telecommunications market.

Nokia’s Indian unit plans to sell handsets in some rural areas under a program that allows the purchasers to pay in installments, the Finnish company’s chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, said Wednesday.

View Full Image

Associated Press

Nokia expects about 500 million cellphone users in India by 2010, up from 427 million now. Above, a girl on her cellphone in Mumbai.

“There is a lot of opportunity here [in India], and we need to make mobility more accessible to all people, including those in rural areas, which is the next frontier to be conquered,” Mr. Kallasvuo said.

The company has more than half the share of India’s mobile handset market, according to analysts. Nokia said it plans to roll out the installment plan to sell its handsets in 12 Indian states after a pilot program covering more than 2,500 villages in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Under the pilot program, a microfinance organization bought handsets from Nokia and sold them to women in rural areas by charging them 100 rupees, or about $2, in weekly installments for as long as 25 weeks.

Nokia expects about 500 million mobile-phone users in India by 2010, up from 427 million now, Mr. Kallasvuo said.

“We believe that much of this growth will take place in non-urban markets and rural penetration in India is still very low at 13%,” Nokia said in a statement.

ECI Telecom DSL deployment in India and Africa with Tata and Togo

From Current Analysis Reports – Broadband Infrastructure by Keith, Erik on June 20, 2009

ECI Telecom, which has seen its DSL market share decline steadily over the past several years, has just expanded its customer bases in India and Africa, potentially paving the way for ECI to regain lost ground in the overall fixed access market.

How to tap the emerging markets?

From India Telecom News on June 18, 2009

There are real opportunities for participating in emerging markets, but things are changing fast. So let’s begin with a look at recent history. In the 1980s and 90s, the US economy – with around 30% of GDP – was the dominant world economy and the main investment arena. By the early 2000s there was talk of emerging BRIC economies, Brazil, Russia, India, and China – not so much displacing the US as adding new dynamism to the global economy.

Among those benefitting from this growth was the broader base of so-called ”emerging markets”. By 2008 some of these emerging markets were growing at 6% to 11%, while the mature, developed markets were growing rather more slowly. Then came the economic crash, and a lot suddenly changed. Some economies, such as India and China, continued to grow at significant, but single figure, rates on the strength of their domestic demand as much as their global presence. Others in the developed world began to contract – notably Singapore for example.

What the forecasters are expecting now is continuing growth in emerging markets – reaching 50% of the world total by 2030. In the more immediate future, growth is expected to creep back next year, but note how the emerging markets dominate the picture for 2010.

No wonder there was so much interest in the opening keynote at NetEvents 2009 APAC Press Summit in Singapore – given by Sunil Joshi, President, Tata Communications Enterprise Business, Emerging Markets, and entitled “The Potential Opportunity of Emerging Markets.”

Sunil Joshi compared emerging markets with a first visit to the gym: you look at all the equipment and potential exercises in some confusion and wonder where to begin. The first thing is to have a clear objective – to grow personally or physically, to tone the body, to get fit , lose weight or whatever. The second thing – and this is vital – is to stick with it. As he put it: ”The potential opportunities are enormous in the emerging markets. But staying in there is equally important.”

he explained that it is vital to understand what makes the emerging markets so different. Firstly the demographics are different, meaning that models that proved successful in mature markets simply didn’t work in emerging markets. The main differentiating factors being:

• growing middle class population
• small premium segments
• local cultural and physiological nuances dictating choices
• low incomes and price sensitive markets

You will find that your local competitors have the advantage of lower cost constructs, as well as being accustomed to working in different conditions than you find in established markets. These include:

• a fragmented distribution and retail infrastructure
• stronger government influence and monopoly conditions
• local partner policies or legal requirements
• early stages of liberalization.

Seldom do you find the necessary resources for business development, such as a skilled workforce. Often expats need to be recruited at high cost.

In fact it is best to divide these market opportunities into 3 categories:

• those already developed, like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, where the GDP per capita is still relatively high and we expect growth to continue to be in the range of about 1% to 3% in the years ahead.
• the semi-developed like Russia, Malaysia and Thailand
• and those recently emerging like India, China, Mexico, where the GDP per capita is relatively low and the GDP growth is expected to be relatively high in the years ahead.

In terms of the growing middle class opportunity, you’ll find that the compounded annual growth rate in China, India and Indonesia from the year 2008 to 2012 is expected to show double-digit growth. If personal income is growing that fast, it will drive increased demand. Taking China as an example, you find the high to middle income groups expect to see significant growth up to 2025. The disposable income created will generate a lot more desire for goods and services locally and globally. We still find food, beverages and tobacco being the largest consumption within India, but the fastest growth from 2005 to 2025 actually lies in the communications industry.

Another difference: urbanisation in emerging markets isn’t as high as in the developed world. Between 1982 to 2017, the Indian population is expected to move dramatically from rural into urban areas. The number of large cities in India increased from 23 in ‘91 to 40 in 2001 and more have grown since.

Age distribution also plays an important role. How young a population does each nation have? Although China only has about 39% of its population aged 24 years or less, for India it is 52% aged 24 years or less – compared with the U.S. and the U.K., where the figure is around 37% and 38% of the population. Youth is a significant driver of growth in areas such as gaming, social networking and music. Retail sales become dominated by global youth brands and, of course, education is a very important growth element.

If we look at, say, India and China’s oil, gas and coal consumption, it has grown dramatically from 1965 to 2007 with China now using about 45% of the global consumption of coal. How do you leverage green initiatives to keep the economy growing, but also protect the world’s climate and the environment?

Those are the main factors distinguishing emerging markets from the established ones. So what is happening now, how is the rest of the world responding to these opportunities?

We now see a lot of investment into emerging markets. But equally important, there are also outward investments by emerging market corporates creating new business models, paradigm shifts in the industry, that allow them to compete against world class enterprises. For example, India has invested something like $22 billion over the last 10 years in various industries, and Russia and U.S. being the biggest areas of growth or investment – for example, Lenovo acquiring the IBM PC business. Toyota went into the US and gained a dominant position. There is an exciting two-way movement, both coming into emerging markets and from emerging markets reaching out.

There is a rapid take-up of technology in emerging markets, their populations are very quick to adapt to new technologies. Philippines is now the texting capital of the world and its population is doing things with text messages way beyond their counterparts in the US.

We look to India too for innovative business models. Currently, India has one of the lowest calling tariffs in the world – the mobile rate is 1 cent per minute, the domestic long distance is 1 cent per minute and international long distance is about 10 cents a minute. Compare that with some of the costs in the mature economies. While the costs are lower, the companies remain profitable and are investing heavily, with a view to further growth across emerging and global markets.

Vietnam, as the world’s gaming hub, has played a very interesting role in the growth of telecommunications as well as gaming in the APAC region. However, broadband penetration is one area that still lags in the emerging markets, and it presents a very interesting opportunity.

So how do we go about entering into these markets? There we are gazing at all the unfamiliar gym equipment and wondering where to start…

We need first to study the opportunities and develop a framework to assess which markets to go for and grow our business.

Begin by considering the three broad areas suggested earlier in relation to your strategic objectives – macroeconomic trends, telecom related issues in terms of local competition, and the regulatory aspect. For example, for the macroeconomic climate you look at political stability; for the regulatory aspect, you look at how easy licensing will be and the hurdles to entry; in telecoms, consider the demand and supply; and so on.

”At TATA looked at world emerging markets and identified about 60 countries that had the right potential. We filtered it using the above criteria down to a list of 30 priority targets. In the last year and a bit we gained presence or access to 24 out of those 30 and we’re well on our way to getting to the remaining six.” according to Sunil Joshi.

Sunil Joshi’s final point was to re-emphasise the importance of local knowledge and of having people on the ground. Whether it is investments in South Africa or India, China, or the Middle East, you need people who actually understand the nuances of the culture, government and marketplace.

”Even in this economically challenging environment, TATA has grown 20% on the top line, and our EBITDA growth was 53% year-on-year. That gives us the confidence that our strategy around emerging markets, and connecting mature or developed economies with emerging markets, is working. And we are obviously putting a lot more investments behind this strategy.” says Sunil Joshi, President, Tata Communications Enterprise Business, Emerging Markets in interview with Duncan Clark, Chairman, BDA Research at NetEvents 2009 APAC Press Summit in Singapore.

Mobile Communication: IBM to invest US$100 million – CIOL News Reports

Mobile Communication: IBM to invest US$100 million – CIOL News Reports

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From http://www.ciol.com on June 17, 2009

NEW DELHI, INDIA: IBM today announced it plans to shift US$100 million investment over the next five years into a major Research effort which aims to advance mobile services and capabilities for businesses and consumers worldwide.

IBM is investing to create technology in its labs that bring simple, easy-to-use services to the millions of people who have bypassed using the personal computer as their primary method of accessing the Internet, and instead use their mobile devices for managing large forces of enterprise field workers, conducting financial transactions, entertainment, shopping, and more.

Through this effort, IBM is aiming to drive new intelligence into the underpinnings of the mobile web to create new efficiencies in business operations and people’s daily lives. The three focus areas for IBM’s research investment are: emerging market mobility, mobile enterprise enablement, and enterprise end-user mobile experiences. Analytics, security, privacy and user interface, and navigation will be concentrated on across the Research effort.

“In today’s interconnected world, mobile device are gradually becoming ubiquitous and helping us transcend many boundaries geographical, economic, and social, among others,” says Dr. Guruduth Banavar, director of IBM Research – India and global leader of the IBM Research mobile communication initiative. “With high penetration, simple user interface, and significant cost advantage for end users, mobile telephony holds the future of communication and exchange of information for the enterprise.”

Emerging Market Mobility

For the 83 percent of the world that does not have easy access to the Web since via PCs, IBM is helping mobile phone users become more productive. In these locations, there is a dearth of skills, such as technological and language literacy; a lack of infrastructure, such as reliable electrical power; as well as limited availability of smartphones.

In one such project, IBM Research  India has established a pilot program that allows people, including farmers, repairmen, small business owners, and consumers, to post, retrieve or exchange timely information via voice on cellphones. Content such as weather and ocean conditions, grain prices, advertisements, bus schedules, news, class schedules, product catalogues, health information and available services appointments is created and updated by entrepreneurs and municipalities.

Mobile Enterprise Enablement

Low cost, high bandwidth, wireless access, and PC-like information processing power are accelerating the promise of the mobile phone as a compelling platform for accessing information services. Mobile phones now outnumber traditional telephones, and the opportunities for growth in mobility are enormous. According to IBM’s Institute for Business Value, the number of mobile users will have grown by 191 percent from 2006 to 2011 to reach approximately one billion users.

A glimpse of the possibilities of mobility can be found in a recent pilot performed as part of IBM’s first-of-a-kind (FOAK) program which used a technology titled “BlueStar” to develop automated mobile devices and application management services for insurance claims processing. The pilot enabled an insurance enterprise to significantly reduce the amount of time required to process claims by leveraging mobile technology to locate and dispatch the most appropriate and available claims adjusters for each case. IBM’s FOAK program pairs IBM’s scientists with clients to explore how emerging technologies can solve real world business problems.

Enterprise to End-User Mobile Experience

“Mobility and the associated analytics will change virtually every enterprise business process,” said Paul Bloom, chief technology officer, IBM Telecom Research. “It will change the relationship between enterprises and their customers, their employees and their partners.”

One example of how mobility will change the relationship between enterprises and the end user can be found in a project at IBM’s Haifa Research Laboratory with Taiwan Mobile, the second largest telecommunication company in Taiwan. Here IBM is analyzing customer information to get manageable business intelligence based on evolving user preferences, users context and transaction history.

IBM Research comprises approximately 3,000 scientists in eight major laboratories around the globe. IBM also has more than 20,000 software developers in 75 development labs in 18 countries. IBM has earned the most U.S. patents for 16 consecutive years, and five of its researchers have been the recipients of the Nobel Prize.

Now Write On Air With Your Mobile Phone!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 on http://www.efytimes.com

Engineering students at Duke University, Durham, US have created a new cell phone technology called PhonePoint Pen, that permits users to write short notes in the air with their phone and have that message automatically sent to an e-mail address. To create this first-generation application, the students took advantage of the accelerometers in emerging cell phones.

According to researchers, accelerometers are the devices in phones that not only keep track of the phone’s movements, but make it possible for the display screens to rotate from landscape to portrait modes depending on how the phone is rotated. These devices are always ‘on’, so there is no additional burden on the phone to use this new application.

“We developed an application that uses the built-in accelerometers in cell phones to recognise human writing,” said Sandip Agrawal, electrical and computer engineering senior, Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, who with Duke graduate student Ionut Constandache developed the PhonePoint Pen. “By holding the phone like a pen, you can write short messages or draw simple diagrams in the air.”

“The accelerometer converts the gestures to images, which can be sent to any e-mail address for future reference,” Constandache said. “Also, say you’re in a class and there is an interesting slide on the screen. We foresee being able to take a photo of the slide and write a quick note on it for future reference. The potential uses are practically limitless. That this prototype works validates the feasibility of such a pen.”

While this first-generation application permits the writing of short messages or simple drawings, it is only a matter of time before this prototype system will be able to handle larger and more complex air-writing capabilities, said Agrawal’s mentor Romit Roy Choudhury, assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering.

“One of the efforts of our group is to take a fresh look at how people get their information into the Internet,” commented Choudhury. “We’re trying to get past the whole idea of typing on a keyboard or using a stylus to enter information into devices. Many people get discouraged with current phones and their small keys. As phones get smaller, this frustration will only grow.”

“And today, especially now in the age of Twitter and micro-blogs, the speed at which you send information becomes more important. To be able to write quickly using only one hand would be very attractive to many people,” Choudhury added.

“It is only a matter of time before we improve the performance of this application,” Agrawal said. “We plan to further augment the pen with real-time feedback, character recognition and better support for drawing diagrams.”

The PhonePoint Pen prototype is expected to be available for download within the next few months.

FIPB pulls the plug on ByCell’s India plans

14 May 2009, 0048 hrs IST, Joji Thomas Philip & Rajat Guha, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The government has withdrawn its approval to little-known Swiss-registered firm ByCell to launch telecom services in India in an unprecedented move triggered by renewed security concerns about the antecedents of its main promoters.

The Foreign investment Promotion Board (FIPB), a nodal government body that clears all foreign investment proposals in India, withdrew the permission after the revenue department and the ministry of home affairs asked it to review ByCell’s application on grounds of security.

ByCell, founded by a group of Russian businessmen, was to hold 74% in the Indian telecom company with Hyderabad-based Jayalakshmi Group, which has interests in tea, tobacco, cotton yarn and power, owning the rest. Both companies had announced this joint venture in 2006.

ByCell CEO Alexandre Louzine told ET that his company had not received any information from the government or FIPB about withdrawing its clearance. “If such a decision has been made, it is a big mistake. It will damage the image of India and hurt the flow of foreign investment into the country,” he said.

“It is not a simple thing to withdraw clearances, especially after we have made considerable investments here. Besides, the Indian government has also collected fees from us for our telecom licence,” said Mr Louzine, adding that the company had offered detailed clarifications to all queries raised by both the home ministry and FIPB.

FIPB had previously cleared ByCell’s application twice over the past two years, but the government had held up the formal issue of licences to the company citing one reason or the another.

ET had first reported in its edition dated May 13 that the MHA and the revenue department had sought that FIPB review the clearance it has given to ByCell to launch telecom operations in India.

The revenue department had expressed concerns to FIPB about ByCell’s shareholding structure, its source of funding and the lack of clarity about the company. It had said the company be allowed to launch operations only after it offers clarity on these issues.

ByCell already holds a letter of intent for launching mobile services in Assam, Bihar, north-eastern states, Orissa and West Bengal, but the Department of Telecom (DoT) had withheld its licence for the past 15 months over its failure to obtain a formal clearance from FIPB.

Earlier this year, FIPB had cleared ByCell’s applications, after the telco had approached the courts, alleging that its licences were being withheld despite DoT approving its application, collecting payments, bank

guarantees and even issuing letters of intent in early-2008.

In January 2006, ByCell had received FIPB approval to invest Rs 500 crore and launch mobile services in five circles (spread across 13 states). And in February 2008, following clearance from the home ministry, the company had again obtained the board’s approval to apply for telecom licences in the remaining 17 circles in the country and raise its investments in India to $500 million.