Vodafone denied licence renewal in seven circles

Indian watchdog the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has rejected Vodafone India’s requests to renew seven mobile licences which are due to expire in December next year and denied it the option to keep the associated spectrum holdings, the Economic Times writes. The UK-backed cellco submitted its request to renew its licences for Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh East, Maharashtra and Gujarat in May. Under the terms of the concessions, which were originally awarded in 1995, operators were permitted to extend their authorisations for a further ten years after the initial 20-year licence period. In rejecting the request, the DoT noted that the sector had changed too much since the licences were first allocated to permit the extension. Instead, the DoT has told Vodafone that it will need to convert the authorisations to unified licences and re-purchase the frequencies at a competitive auction to be held later this year.