Russian conglomerate Sistema partnered Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) which provides its telecom service in India under the MTS brand has become the first Indian telecom operator to secure the new unified telecom licence. Unified Telecom Licence is one of the promising licence structure that would definitely bring changes to the telecom sector in India. Under this licence, the telecom operator can offer technology neutral telecom services in the country for a period of 20 years.
SSTL from its earlier telecom licence was restricted to offer only CDMA based services under the 800 MHz spectrum band. But now with the unified telecom licence, they can offer GSM based services include 3G and 4G LTE services.
MTS India has spectrum licence in nine telecom circles, but except for Rajasthan telecom circle the other eight telecom circles which include Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Tamil Nadu, UP (West) and West Bengal will be part of the Unified Licence. Rajasthan telecom circle is under MTS’s old telecom licence structure called Unified Access Services Licences.
“We are delighted to get the Unified Licence. This is a positive development and would bring clarity in the operating environment for the Company. We are now looking forward to the allotment of the third carrier (slot) of spectrum that we had won in the March 2013 auctions,” commented Dmitry Shukov, CEO, Sistema Shyam Teleservices.
It will be now interesting to know how SSTL uses its licence to make a statement in the Indian telecom sector which is now completely ruled by GSM based telecom service providers.