The Hindu Business Line : Anil Ambani writes to PM, slams GSM operators' claims on spectrum

The war of letters between honchos of mobile companies over Government's spectrum policy has intensified further with Reliance Communication's Chairman, Mr Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, writing to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in support of the decisions taken by the Communications Ministry.

Mr Ambani told the Prime Minister that the policymaking process adopted by the Department of Telecom was completely transparent and the GSM operators are adopting an anti-consumer and anti-competitive stance in spreading false and misleading propaganda against the policy makers.

Earlier, existing GSM operators including Mr Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel; Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Idea Cellular; and Mr Arun Sarin, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone; had shot off letters to the Prime Minister criticising the Communications Ministry's spectrum allocation policy that allegedly favoured a few companies including Reliance Communication. However, Mr Ambani has backed the Communications Ministry's policies and said that the GSM players were spreading myths that it was favouring any particular company.

"The motivated game plan of a few large GSM operators in the country is simple - prevent the entry of new players in the GSM space, hoard spectrum, and limit new competition, indulge in anti-consumer practices such as cartelisation and price fixation, delay implementation of all new initiatives indefinitely through a combination of litigation and policy uncertainty to enhance their own dominance, and make the cost of entry for new players prohibitive and unviable," Mr Ambani said in the letter.

On the specific allegation made by the GSM operators that RCom has been arbitrarily allowed to offer GSM services, Mr Ambani said that the DoT had followed a due process which included a comprehensive public consultation by the telecom regulator.

He added that contrary to the perception that dual technology approval has been given only to Reliance, DoT has granted approvals to two other operators and is in the process of granting approval to Tata Teleservices.

Excess spectrum

On GSM operators' claims that the subscriber linked spectrum allocation norms specified by the Telecom Engineering Centre was unrealistic, Mr Ambani said that the large GSM operators had so far taken spectrum free of charge and far more than 6the .2 Mhz which was what they were entitled to.

"In line with the global practice, there is a strong case for DoT to now demand the surrender of excess spectrum wrongfully being enjoyed by the existing GSM players, far in excess of their needs, and far beyond anything they were entitled as per their original licence conditions," Mr Ambani said in the letter.

On the issue of auctioning spectrum, Mr Ambani said that auction of spectrum will only benefit existing mobile operators as it will push the cost of entry for a new player, making it unviable for them.

Mr Ambani has urged the Prime Minister to "see through the motivated agenda of a few existing GSM operators and not succumb to their pressure tactics."

Related Stories:
RCom to spend over Rs 5,000 cr for GSM roll-out
Dual tech to CDMA operators: Cellular players take DoT to court
Licence acquisition – Shot in arm for RCom
RCom applies for using mixed technologies

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