New Delhi: India's Telecom Commission, the highest decision making body in the telecom ministry, has allowed wireless broadband airwave holders to offer voice services on payment of Rs 16.58 billion or $306 million, Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar said Monday.
The move will enable the country's largest business conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd to launch voice services through its subsidiary Infotel Broadband Services.
The company is yet to take a final call on rolling out high speed wireless broadband services, loosely termed 4G (fourth generation), The Economic Times said, citing sources from the company, industry and the vendor community.
Infotel Broadband became the only company which won BWA spectrum in all 22 circles in India by paying Rs 128.48 billion.
In 2010, Reliance Industries had picked up a 95% equity stake in Infotel Broadband for Rs 48 billion by way of subscription to fresh equity capital, making it a subsidiary of Reliance and thereby marking its foray into the telecom space.
Bharti Airtel is the only company to launch 4G data services in India. It has launched 4G services in Kolkata, Pune and Bangalore.
In 2010, the telecom giant paid a total of Rs 33.14 billion to buy BWA radio spectrum in metro city Kolkata and states of Punjab, Karnataka and Maharashtra (excluding the metro city Mumbai).
Copyright Contify.com
