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New Delhi, Nov. 6 B K Modi Group promoted Spice Telecom on Tuesday said it has dissociated from the legal petition filed by the Cellular Operators Association of India against Government’s decision to allow dual technology to Reliance Communications.

The company said that the Government’s decision did not have any impact on its operations and therefore it was withdrawing from the legal proceedings.

Spice Telecom, which is partly owned by Malaysia Telecom, is the second operator after Aircel to distance from COAI’s legal petition.

COAI, however, said that the move will have no impact on its case, which is slated to be taken up by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal on November 12.

COAI officials pointed out that Aircel has also withdrawn from the legal case filed against the Government’s decision to allow limited mobility to CDMA players a few years back.

They pointed out that both Spice and Aircel stand to benefit from the Government’s spectrum allocation policy on first come first served basis and does not want to be seen as antagonising the Ministry of Communications.

“We would like to clarify that we have no objection to the issuance of in-principle approval by Department of Telecom for cross-over spectrum allotment. We are number one in the line in 12 circles and at the number two spot in other circles. Our focus is therefore is to expand our network by taking new licences. Some of the existing GSM operators are however talking of blocking the entry of new operators and that is not our objective,” said Ms Preeti Malhotra, Group President Corporate Affairs and Company Secretary, Spice Telecom.

Meanwhile, the Communications Ministry has urged COAI to drop the litigation and resolve the dispute through discussions. The Ministry’s initiative to hold talks with the GSM operators came even as the Communications Minister, Mr A. Raja, told the Prime Minister that Spice and Aircel have admitted that COAI had misled them, media and the public in general.

COAI had challenged the decision to allow dual technology on the grounds that the move allowed Reliance to get spectrum ahead of existing GSM players who have been waiting for radio frequency for over a year.

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