The Hindu Business Line : Tatas raise concern over scope to hoard spectrum

What they say
Accredited method or audit to verify the actual subscriber base absent.
Subscribers numbers inflated as handset sales are lower than total user base.

MR RATAN TATA

New Delhi , May 7

Even as the spectrum row has reached the Prime Minister, the Tata Group has shot off another missive this time to the Wireless Planning and Co-ordination wing (WPC) raising concerns over cellular operators reporting inflated subscriber numbers to hoard radio frequency taking benefit of the subscriber- linked spectrum allocation policy.

The Tatas have said that the decision by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to allocate spectrum based on the number of subscribers will "create monopolistic tendencies in the telecom sector with operators indulging in over reporting of their subscriber base and traffic in order to hoard spectrum. This is not in public interest."

They said in the absence of any accredited method or audit to verify the actual subscriber base of the operators, DoT should hold its order on spectrum allocation based on subscriber names. The Tatas have also written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to look into the issue. "We are not aware of any exercise so far whereby the accurate subscriber base of every Indian operators have been established. We believe that it is imperative for WPC to participate in an exercise to undertake a third party lead audit of subscriber base," said a letter from Tata Teleservices to WPC.

The Tatas have also pointed to study done by the Yankee Group which said that the subscribers numbers in India are inflated as the handset sales are lower than the total user base being reported by the operators.

The war of letters over spectrum had begun with Mr Ratan Tata writing to the DoT asking for a review in the spectrum policy on the grounds that it discriminated against CDMA operators. In response, the Cellular Operators Association of India and private cellular operators including Mr Asim Ghosh, Managing Director, Hutchison India, wrote letters supporting the policy.

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