Addressing newspersons, Association of Basic Telecom Operators (ABTO) secretary general S.C Khanna said that roll out of the networks had been delayed due to," hurdles put up by various government agencies which have caused lengthy delays in the projects being set up by private operators".

In addition, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) policy had violated the terms and conditions of the basic telecom licences, by allowing last mile linkages to private internet companies, said Khanna. "ABTO takes serious exception to the unwarranted and unjustifieddemands of communication minister Jagmohan for paying up 20 per cent licence fee dues and securitise the remaining 80 per cent," he added.

The communication minister's directives violate the terms of reference of the Group on Telecom (GoT), as the group had the mandate to look into issues relating to existing licenses and suggest appropriate remedial measures within the framework of a new telecom policy, Khanna claimed.

"It is amazing that while ministers in other sectors are working towards developing India's infrastructure, the communications ministry has taken a completely retrogressive approach," he added.

Khanna said that the ABTO had been assured by officials of the GoT that licence fees for the second year would be kept suspended till a new policy was announced. "The ABTO demanded restructuring of the licence agreement, on the grounds that the government had violated the duopoly condition by allowing ISPs to set up last mile linkages," Khanna said.

Besides, there are a number of problems forbasic operators in complete violation of the agreement, he added citing the instance of delays in clearances to dig national highways and roads for laying networks. Moreover, there is no coordination between various ministries and the work of basic telecom operators gets delayed, Khanna said.

At present, only Bharti Telenet and Hughes Ispat have started their operations in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra respectively. Tata Tele Services is also expected to start offering services in Andhra Pradesh in the near future. The six basic operators owe around Rs 890.95 crore to the government as second year licence fee. These operators are Hughes Ispat, Bharti Telenet Ltd, Reliance Telecom Ltd, Essar, Tata Tele Services and Shyam Telenet.

The DOT has asked these operators to pay 20 per cent of their dues, amounting to Rs 178.19 crore, by February 28 and securitise the remaining 80 per cent. The DoT can revoke the licence of these operators on the issue, who have already paid Rs 800 crore as first year licencefees.

Cellular operators had already announced that they would move court seeking damages from DoT for not fulfilling their contractual obligations in the licence agreement.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) executive director T V Ramachandran told reporters that "suits will be filed by individual operators against DOT for not fulfilling contractual obligations which inordinately delayed launch of the services."

The damages caused by DoT's delay in granting clearances would run into far in excess of Rs 3,700 crore that operators owe the government by way of licence fee dues, he said. "If we are wrong in violating contractual obligation, DOT is also equally wrong," Ramachandran said.

All metro and circle cellular operators have already sent legal notices to DOT and since no response was received so far, the operators have the right approach the court seeking damages, he said. As per the licence agreement, DoT was to arrange or help operators in getting various clearances in time, but ithad done nothing to that respect thereby delaying the launch of services by several months, he said.

Ramachandran, however, said the move to approach the court was independent of the licence fee due issue and added that "it has nothing to do with the February 28 deadline to pay the dues."

In a statement COAI chairman Rajeev Chandrasekhar said "threats and coercion may achieve the purpose of meeting the DoT objective of undermining the private sector and forcing them to default so that they can dictate terms to operators."