STel Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between the Siva Group and Bahrain Telecommunications Co (Batelco), has been asked by the Department of Telecom ( DoT ) to shut down the network in all the three regions where it is currently operational. Operator had recently launched its services in Himachal Pradesh, Orissa and Bihar with some attractive tariffs and upto the end of January, STel crossed over five lakh subscribers in all three regions. Mr P. Swaminathan, Director, STel PVt Ltd, confirmed that the company had received the Government notice.

The DoT, in its notice to the company sent on Friday, did not spell out the details of the security concerns leading to the order. However, sources indicated that either the company’s network may not have passed the scrutiny of the security agencies or the Home Ministry may have objected to the Bahrain-based Batelco’s presence in the venture.

Speaking on the matter Mr P. Swaminathan, Director, STel PVt Ltd said, “We have got the letter from the DoT, but it does not explain why we are being asked to shut down operations. We would like to ascertain the exact reasons for this decision so that we can help the Government in resolving any issue. We had started offering services only after we received all permissions from various Government authorities; so this comes as a surprise to us,”

STel got its licences in 2008 to operate in six circles of which three are operational. Services in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and the North-East were to have started in the next few months, but the roll-out could now get delayed due to the DoT order. The company had earlier announced investments of close to Rs 2,000 crore in rolling out 2G services with a target of achieving 20 million subscribers by 2016 and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) break-even by 2013.