According to official sources, DoT has raised certain queries on Hutch Essar's shareholding pattern, besides other issues.
At present 49 per cent foreign equity is allowed in telecom, although cabinet has given its nod to raise it to 74 per cent, but pending the final guidelines to be issued by DoT, the decision has not yet been notified.
Company officials confirmed about the receipt of queries from DoT on some issues, which they termed as "minor and trivial" and that they were in the process of replying to the department within the stipulated deadline.
There are no issues. The company is serious on its intention to enter the NLD space, they said.
Hutch Essar, the pure play cellular operator having license in 13 circles is keen to enter the Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) national long distance arena and had applied to DoT seeking a license in June this year.
It is currently routing its STD calls through other NLD operators incurring carriage charges and ADC too in case of BSNL. Most of the top mobile operators have their own STD network.
An NLD license will cost Hutch-Essar an upfront Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) entry payment, performance guarantees of Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) and an additional Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) in financial bank guarantees.
The third largest GSM operator in the country gives its traffic to various NLD operators including Bharti, BSNL and VSNL as per COAI figures, Hutch has a subscriber base of over 88 lakh as on July 30.
Earlier this year, Hutchison Essar group consolidated its mobile interests under a single entity Hutchison Max Telecom Ltd in preparation for a domestic initial public offer.
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