Union communications minister A Raja met the chiefs of telecom companies to find a solution to the rush of applications for starting mobile telephone services.
Defence to vacate some spectrum by November
NEW DELHI: Union communications minister A Raja on Wednesday met the chiefs of telecom companies to find a solution to the rush of applications for starting mobile telephone services.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has received over 300 applications within a fortnight ending October 1.
Bharti’s Sunil Mittal, Vodafone Essar’s Asim Ghosh, Idea Cellular’s Sanjeev Aga and Spice Telecom’s BK Modi were among those attended the meeting.
By the end of the meeting, the divide between global systems for mobile communications (GSM) and code division multiple access (CDMA) groups only deepened, but the two association chiefs T V Ramachandran and S C Khanna decided to shake hands for a photo-op outside Sanchar Bhavan that houses DoT.
The GSM lobby is represented by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the CDMA lobby by the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI).
While the COAI maintained that the current subscriber-linked policy for spectrum allocation and the first-come-first-serve norms must continue, the AUSPI favoured the 2G spectrum auction.
It is learnt that Raja gave a patient hearing to the operators, without disclosing any plans that he might have for the sector.
The minister, however, assured the players that, if there’s a need, the industry would be consulted again before a “transparent” licensing and spectrum policy is firmed up by the government.
Earlier, in the day, Raja said that the defence forces are likely to vacate some spectrum by November.
Currently, the DoT is considering the recommendations of the telecom regulator on licensing and M&A norms for framing a new policy.
The GSM group, which was represented at the meeting by many heavyweights unlike the CDMA side, is believed to have got more time to make their point.
However, Raja has allowed the CDMA camp to give its “rejoinder” within 10 days.
In his presentation, COAI director general TV Ramachandran said that the government should follow the current subscriber-linked criteria for allocating spectrum.
“Any change in the present criteria must be done in a reasonable, transparent and scientific manner and applied on a prospective basis,” the association said.
COAI wants “rigorous scrutiny of all applications to weed out non-credible applicants and ensure strict enforcement of cross-holding restrictions”.
The GSM players stressed that “priority treatment” must be given to current GSM operators while allocating licences and spectrum.
They pointed out that applications made before December 2006 should be given preference by DoT.
Opposing the GSM viewpoint, AUSPI secretary general S C Khanna said, “The presentation given by GSM operators is not at all factually correct. It is misleading. They have twisted the facts and figures.”
“Their demand for spectrum in the presentation is based on usage of old technology available in the year 2003 whereas there is lot of advancement in the technology available at present for optimum and efficient use of spectrum,” he said.
Meanwhile, DoT has formed an internal committee to frame guidelines to grant new licences. The recent slew of applications for UAS licence, including some from unknown entities and non-telecom firms, and spectrum crunch even for existing players resulted in the government setting a cut-off date.
“The idea is to screen non-serious players,” a source pointed out.
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