CDMA major Reliance Communications (RCom) is planning to move the telecom dispute settlement tribunal (TDSAT) this week.
Company may seek subscriber-linked spectrum allocation
NEW DELHI: CDMA major Reliance Communications (RCom) is planning to move the telecom dispute settlement tribunal (TDSAT) this week over the issue of some GSM operators “hoarding excess spectrum beyond their eligibility,” sources said. RCom officials did not comment.
RCom chairman Anil Ambani had earlier written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, pointing out that some GSM operators were hoarding spectrum and the same should be withdrawn from them. If the extra spectrum is not withdrawn, the operators should be made to pay for it, Ambani had said. He had said that 52 MHz of excess spectrum is being hoarded by GSM operators.
After RCom was permitted to offer pan-India GSM service recently under dual technology norms, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) representing GSM players like Bharti, Vodafone Essar and Idea had challenged the government move in TDSAT. Currently, the case is being fought in the Delhi High Court.
In its petition to TDSAT, RCom is likely to argue that subscriber-linked spectrum allocation norms recommended by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), the technical arm of the Department of Telecom (DoT), should be enforced on GSM operators.
Recently, the spectrum allocation review panel, appointed by the government, recommended the less stringent subscriber-linked norms of the telecom regulator, TRAI, till a comprehensive spectrum policy is formulated, thereby rejecting the TEC criteria. The TEC criteria were many times more stringent than that proposed by TRAI earlier.
The government subsequently accepted the recommendation of the review panel on the TRAI criteria for allocating additional spectrum to GSM players. But, there’s no official word yet on withdrawal of `extra’ spectrum from GSM players.
It is believed that governments in the US, UK and Latin America have sought return of excess spectrum from telecom operators and refarmed it. In his letter to the PM, Ambani had cited the case of Ofcom (UK regulator) asking Vodafone and O2 to return some spectrum to the government.
m_nivedita@dnaindia.net
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