Kolkata: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Wednesday extended the compliance deadline of telcos for meeting their minimum network rollout obligations (MRO) to September 30 amid continuing lockdowns, invoking the force majeure clause in operator licence rules, providing a temporary reprieve to Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
The Big 3 telcos were dreading the prospect of stiff penalties of around Rs 50 crore per MRO violation, starting June, as DoT had earlier not extended the compliance timelines beyond May 31, despite repeated reminders from operators.
“Due to (an) unforeseen situation in the wake of Covid-19, the force majeure clause of the (telco) licence is applied and relaxations are being granted to licensees whose due date of registration for fulfilment of MRO is between March 25 and September 30,” said a DoT circular, dated May 27, to all operators. It added that the last date of registration for telcos to meet their minimum rollout obligations without levy of liquidated damages (LD) is September 30.
ET has seen a copy of the DoT circular.Mobile phone companies though had urged DoT to extend the MRO compliance timelines by at least six-to-nine months amid the Covid-19 lockdowns. Under the MRO compliance process, telcos need to make submissions to DoT on the meeting of network rollout targets, post allocation of spectrum, in their licenced service areas. The MRO compliance timelines are linked to the specific spectrum band assigned to a telco and the date of allocation of such airwaves.
Telcos had urged the government to ease MRO compliance deadlines as network gear imports and supplies were severely hit amid the global pandemic outbreak and lockdowns. The situation could get further aggravated with Finnish gear maker Nokia temporarily shutting down its factory in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, after 42 staffers reportedly tested Covid19 positive.
Rajan Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), had recently written to DoT, noting that since the MRO exercise is a time-bound process with huge penalties for delay, it would be unfair if telcos were to suffer from any of these penalties for a situation that could at best be described as force majeure.
Telcos had sought an extension of compliance timelines as the MRO process is a complex, entailing numerous tower site acquisitions, conducting of drive tests and securing of multiple approvals from various state authorities and local municipal bodies, which had been severely hit by the prolonged Covid-19 lockdowns.
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