Defaulters allowed to bid for fresh cellular licence
New Delhi: Mobile operators who had bid high license fees in the first round of cellular phone licenses and thereafter defaulted, have, in a major policy change, been allowed to bid for new licenses.

The reversal of the original decision disallowing them from bidding for new licenses will certainly benefit firms like Koshika and Aircell Digilink.

The government has allowed for this change since the tender conditions for the current round stipulate very clearly that the successful bidder has to shell out the fee upfront before signing the license agreement.

During first round of bidding, the operators had to pay the licence fee over a period of 10 years. Most of the operators quoted a high licence fee. However, they could not pay their dues as their business plans went haywire.
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