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SPECTRUM ROW

The Department of Telecom (DoT) and mobile service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications, failed to reach a consensus on the spectrum issue.

After a two-hour meeting between telecom secretary D.S. Mathur and mobile operators, Bharti Airtel chairman and managing director Sunil Mittal declined talk to the media, saying "operators have been asked not to make any comment".

As there was no consensus among the operators, Mathur asked operators to meet him individually later. According to sources, Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani raised the issue of extra spectrum being held by GSM operators., He asked how over 6.2 MHz of radio waves have been given to GSM players beyond their contractual agreement.

Some of the operators also demanded that Letter of Intent for new telephony licence should be issued immediately as in the last two years the government has granted over 50 permissions or LoIs under the same policy. Telecom secretary gave a patient hearing to all operators and asked them to resolve the issues amicably.

Mathur also requested GSM operators to withdraw their petition from TDSAT.
The Cellular Operators Association of India has challenged government’s new norms, including enhanced subscriber base and allowing of dual technology by a single operator under the same licence. Vodafone-Essar managing director Asim Ghosh was also present in the meeting among others.

The Prime Minister’s Office has stepped in to take into its own hands the complex tangle over allocation of licences and spectrum for telecom operators while industry leaders from both the GSM and CDMA technology based firms met D.S. Mathur, secretary in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). A senior official in the PMO has instructed the DoT not to issue letters of intent (LoIs) to any of the 46 new licence aspirants until further advice.

New applicants are considering court action to expedite the LoIs, while GSM players are locked in a courtroom tussle with the government on spectrum. Before meeting the incumbent telecom operators in his office, Mathur met a senior official in the PMO. Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath is also believed to have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention on the issue.

Anil Ambani, the chairman of CDMA player Reliance Communications, and Vodafone chief Arun Sarin had also shot off letters to the Prime Minister on the matter.
DoT had also made a presentation to the Cabinet Secretary on Tuesday about spectrum availability and policy, spectrum allocation criteria, the committee studying allocation of spectrum and the use of both CDMA and GSM technology spectrum by universal access service licence holders. Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, the Finance Secretary, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, the Defence Secretary and Home Secretary were also present at the meeting.

Mathur met GSM and CDMA operators at a joint meeting and also separately met each group. Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel, Asim Ghosh of Vodafone Essar, Sanjeev Aga of Idea Cellular, B.K. Modi of Spice Communications were among the GSM leaders, while Anil Sardana of Tata Teleservices, Reliance’s Anil Ambani and HFCL’s Mahendra Nahata were among the CDMA players, who are also expanding into GSM services. GSM operators, who are clamouring for more spectrum, oppose the rule of allocation linked to subscriber growth recommended by the industry regulator and accepted by the DoT and also the specific criteria for this enunciated Telecom Engineering Center.