The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has reportedly decided not to scrap dual-technology telecom licences held by telecom firms like Reliance Communications Ltd and Tata Teleservices Ltd.

Holders of dual-technology telecom licences are permitted to offer telecom services on both CDMA and GSM platforms. Reliance Communications Ltd holds 22 licences, while Tata Teleservices Ltd owns 19 such licences across the country.

The DoT's decision is based on the legal advice of senior advocate P P Rao, who said the Supreme Court had no right to order scrapping of these licences. It may be noted here that, the Supreme Court of India had ordered scrapping of 2G licences due to irregularities in the issuing process.

But, industry bodies Assocham and the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) argued that the apex court's decision should lead to cancellation of 141 Unified Access Service (UAS) licences, instead of 122, forcing the DoT to seek P P Rao's opinion.

Rao said that the apex court had not ordered cancellation of dual-technology licences awarded to the existing players before January 10, 2008. He added that the allocation of spectrum quashed by the apex court was limited to only the cancelled licences, and the existing licensees weren't to be affected.

Tata Teleservices had obtained its pan-Indian CDMA licences in 2005, except for Jammu & Kashmir, Northeast and Assam, for which it got licences in 2008. Those three licences were among the 122 cancelled licences.