The modification in the licence conditions follows questions raised by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the quantum of revenue share and other anomalies in the provisional licences of Iridium and Agrani.

As per the fresh offer letter issued for providing global mobile personal communication services (GMPCS) in India, DoT has now asked Agrani Satellite Communication Enteprises (ASC) to fork out 16 per cent of annual gross revenues, in addition to a Rs 1 crore per annum fixed licence fee from the effective date of the licence agreement.

DoT has also revised the time period of the provisional licence, which will now be valid for one year and cease to exist on expiry of the period or with signing of the final licence.

Earlier, DoT in 1995 hadoffered a provisional licence to Agrani for 13 years, which was extendable by another 13 years at one time. It had also levied a revenue share of 5 per cent on the company at that stage while giving it a time of 36 months to install and offer services.

ASC had applied for grant of licence for GMPCS in December 1998. DoT had asked the company for clarifications and compliance reports in regard to the security-related conditions and technical details of the Agrani project to DoT.

As per the new telecom policy (NTP-99), Trai had been asked to recommend the appropriate entry fee and revenue-sharing structure. The government will on the basis of these recommendations arrive at the final policy in regard to satcom services in the country.

ASC will now have to comply with a number of conditions within the next twelve months including obtaining SIA clearance for the terms of the foreign-equity participation, issue equity shares to all promoters, obtain WPC and SACFA clearance for operation of service andfurnish requisite financial bank guarantees (FBG).

Once this conditions are met, the company will have to sign the provisional licence agreement before the expiry of the validity period. In addition, the company will also have to furnish the fixed component of the first year's licence fee, requisite FBG, RBI clearance on 49 per cent foreign equity cap, SIA certificate and the exact equity structure of the company.