18 long distance phone licences sought, Govt

New Delhi, Mar 13 (UNI) The government today said 18 licence applications have been received from domestic and foreign companies for operating the national and international long distance telecom routes.

However, no licence has been granted so far, based on the guidelines issued in December 2005, Dr Shakeel Ahmad, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, said.

Applications for ILD operations have been received from Shippingstop Dot Com, Sify Communications Ltd, Dishnet Wireless Ltd, Spice Communications Pvt. Ltd and i21 enterprises Ltd.

Applications for NLD applications have been received from Hutchison Essar Ltd, Shippingstop Dot Com, Sify Communications Ltd, Dishnet Wireless Ltd, HCL INFINET Ltd, Hughes Escorts Communications Ltd, Spice Communications Pvt Ltd, Tulip IT Services Ltd, Apaksh Broadband, i21 enterprises Ltd, MTNL, PowerGrid Corp of India and RailTel Corporation of India.

UNI RT SD DB1909