The Hindu Business Line : COAI files affidavit against spectrum criteria

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COAI files affidavit against spectrum criteria

This is in addition to the legal petition

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov 7

Despite the Government’s move to set up a new panel to review spectrum allocation criteria for mobile operators, the Cellular Operators Association of India has filed another affidavit in the Telecom Dispute Settlement Tribunal against the criteria suggested by the Telecom Engineering Centre.

The TEC report had asked the existing GSM operators to pack in up to 15 times more subscribers to be eligible for additional spectrum. This in effect put out all the existing operators out of contention for additional spectrum.

On Tuesday, the Communication Ministry, which has accepted the TEC report, had set up a new committee to review this norm in a bid to take the industry’s concerns on board. Industry representatives from COAI have also been invited to be part of the new panel.

New affidavit

However, this move has clearly not addressed the concerns of the existing GSM players. The new affidavit from COAI is in addition to the appeal against the Government’s decision to allow Reliance Communication to offer GSM-based services across the country.

While Aircel and Spice have distanced themselves from the legal proceedings, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular are challenging the Government’s spectrum policy since they are the worst affected.

COAI has also questioned the Government’s move to allocate spectrum to two telecom PSUs, BSNL and MTNL, on the grounds that they have been given frequency out of turn even as private players have been waiting to get spectrum for over a year. The TDSAT is expected to take up the case on November 12.