Bangalore, Concerned over nearly 80 million mobile subscribers of new telecom operators, the government on Monday said it is looking at various options to protect the interest of subscribers following the Supreme Court's order to cancel 122 licenses given to the telecom companies.
Customers will not be affected much from the 2G verdict as they have been given four months to cease operations. It means users have enough time to shift to another service providers.
"Government is looking at various ways where we can help any subscriber to ensure his interest is protected," Minister of State for Communications Sachin Pilot said.
"Supreme Court has given four months time. From what I understand subscriber base of companies that have been impacted by 2G verdict is very minuscule. There is mobile number portability for them. So there is not much on consumer per se," he added.
Telecom operators have claimed that they made huge investments in acquiring licenses and rolling out services. Sistema-Shyam claims to have invested over USD 2.5 billion (about Rs 12,500 crore) and Telenor claims to have already invested over Rs 6,100 crore in equity and over Rs 8,000 crore in corporate guarantees as a foreign investor that trusts a license stamped by the government of India.
These two companies have asserted that they would take legal measures to protect their investments on Indian operations, with Telenor also evaluating an "alternative" plan to quit India.
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