The Hindu Business Line : TDSAT seeks DoT views on halting spectrum allocation till July

New Delhi, May 16 In a move that could upset the plans of the new mobile players, the telecom tribunal has asked the Department of Telecom whether spectrum allocation can be halted till the first week of July.

The move follows an appeal from Spice Communications challenging DoT’s decision to reject its application for pan Indian telecom licence.

Spice urged the tribunal that spectrum allocation should be stopped as otherwise by the time the petition is heard and orders are passed, its rival companies would have already gone ahead and launched services. DoT has allocated spectrum to new players including Swan, Shyam Telelink, Datacom and Unitech in some of the circles.

Spice argued that this was hampering its commercial interest. While the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) refused to stay the spectrum allocation process, it asked the Government to submit its views, by May 28, on whether it would be appropriate to halt it till July when the final hearing of the petition starts.

Awaits technical member

The TDSAT refused to go for the final hearing as the technical member on the bench has still not been appointed by the Government. The post has been lying vacant in TDSAT for more than six months, which has delayed judgment on a number of crucial appeals, including the appeal filed by the GSM operators against cross holding by Reliance Communications.

The TDSAT Chairman observed that since Spice’s application was rejected by DoT on the grounds that they had lower net worth, the tribunal needed expert on Capital Issuance Accountancy and it was not available on the bench at present.

In another case, the Government told the Delhi High Court that companies which had applied after September 25 for new telecom licences, are not out of reckoning. Responding to an appeal filed by STEL, which had applied for 16 licences, DoT said that all applications made after September 25 will be taken up subsequently.

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