Reliance Industries applies for licence to offer mobile telephony services

Reliance Industries, which holds pan-India 4G telecom spectrum for data services, has applied for a licence to offer mobile telephony.

The company's move came three days after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued migration guidelines for Unified Licence under which Internet service providers (ISP) such as Reliance Jio Infocomm that have Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum can offer mobile telephony service by paying an extra fee of Rs 1,658.57 crore.

"The application (for Unified Licence) was submitted today (Thursday)," a source close to the development told PTI. Reliance Industries did not respond to an e-mail query.

The government put in place a new Unified Licence regime early this month with the aim of freeing players from limitations on use of technology for services and allow them to take benefits such as spectrum sharing and full Internet telephony under the new sectoral policy.

Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is the only player to have pan-India BWA spectrum, is in the process of testing Internet-based calls on mobile networks.