The Hindu Business Line : Cellular body asks DoT to hold back new GSM licences

New Delhi, Feb. 25 Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has told the Department of Telecom that it would be acting against the assurances given in various courts by the Government if licences were issued to new players.

In a letter to the Department of Telecom, COAI said that existing GSM operators had applied for a licence and spectrum in 2006 and therefore their application must be processed first before bringing in new players.

“You will appreciate that spectrum once allotted is virtually impossible to take back and under these circumstances, for DoT to go ahead and finalise distribution of spectrum to various contenders, especially those whose rights to receive the same are under challenge in TDSAT and other courts, would result in grave and irreversible consequences to our member operators.

“In any event, once the spectrum is allocated, the priority right of our member operators to receive their legitimate GSM spectrum, will be irreparably infringed and could not be reversed even if we were to succeed in our challenge in the TDSAT,” COAI said.

“Under these circumstances, we hereby urge DoT to refrain from allocating any GSM spectrum without following the principle of first-come first-served based on date of application,” COAI said.

Earlier, Idea Cellular and Spice telecom had written to DoT seeking priority for their applications.

Top of the list

According to a list prepared by the DoT, Videocon-owned Datacom is at the top of the list in 19 circles and Unitech is in the second spot in 12 circles. Other 5 applicants who received Letters of Intent for pan-Indian operations are left with only a few circles.

Meanwhile, DoT is looking at the possibility of allocating spectrum to the new operators only in those circles where there is more than 45 Mhz of available radio waves. DoT officials said that licences may be issued to the new players subject to court orders.

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