The Wall Street Journal reports that India’s telecoms minister Kapil Sibal yesterday said the country’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will issue notices within a week to 85 license holders (12 companies) that received licenses in 2008 despite not meeting the eligibility criteria, asking why their licenses shouldn’t be cancelled. The DoT will also reportedly send notices to companies that haven’t met timelines for rolling out services and may impose fines if it finds that rules were violated. The WSJ article adds that if these companies don’t meet the rollout rules within a year, their licenses could be cancelled. The license holders will be given 60 days to respond, and further action will be taken after receiving their replies, warned Sibal, according to the report.

India’s actions mark the country’s efforts to begin cleaning up a situation that has seen the sector mired in allegations of corruption and fraud. Critics have argued that the selloff of 2G licenses in 2008 – which were reportedly conducted on a ‘first-come, first-served basis’ without competitive bidding or an auction – could have cost the country as much as US$40 billion in lost revenue. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has already asked the telecoms ministry to cancel the 62 regional licenses given to five companies in 2008, which includes licenses now held by international operators such as UAE’s Etisalat, Norway’s Telenor and Russia’s Sistema. Ex telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja resigned over the issue earlier this month.