NEW DELHI, India—The Indian government has decided to award licenses for Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) services for a period of 20 years on a nonexclusive basis. The foreign equity in companies offering the service should not exceed 49 percent.
The license term will be extendable by 10 years.
Operators will be required to pay a one-time entry fee of 10 million rupees (US$208,000) prior to signing the license agreement. In addition, they will also pay an annual license fee at the rate of 10 percent of “adjusted gross revenue” as revenue share generated from the service.
According to the terms, gateway earth stations, controls and monitoring facilities for all the licensed systems must be located in India. From the security point of view, the operation and maintenance of the gateways shall be with the authority designated by the government. GMPCS operators will provide monitoring facilities and security features as decided by security agencies.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has already issued letters of intent to two companies—ASC Enterprises and Shyam ACeS (India)—for GMPCS license in the country.
