Tata firm hits back at Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar; asserts it never got any benefit

In the war of words between Ratan Tata and Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar as "futile", a Tata group firm today said Chandrasekhar's attack on a former telecom regulator as a "cheap gimmick".

Reacting to Chandrasekhar's allegations that Tatas had benefited a lot and got spectrum out of turn thanks to changes in government policies, Tata Teleservices (TTSL)said in a statement that they would not like to keep this issue alive any more in view of the Supreme Court investigating into the matter.

"We would, therefore, not be responding to any further statements from Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, as we find the debate created by him to be futile," it said.

Earlier, Tata too had directly joined issue with Chandrasekhar after he wrote an open letter suggesting that Tata group benefited from changes in the telecom policy.

Commenting on TTSL's statement, the MP told PTI: "I reiterate the three questions I have been raising all along that with the formation of certain policies who benefited from these?"

He also said that best way was to have a public debate to tell the people of this country what went on in the telecom sector.

In the statement, Tatas' flagship telecom company Tata Teleservices said, on the contrary, it has always been put behind in the queue as was evident from the fact that the company was yet to receive teh second generation mobile spectrum in Delhi and 39 other locations even three years after paying the licence fee of Rs1,651 crore.

Chandrasekhar had yesterday said that Tata companies were beneficiaries of the telecom policies especially dual technology and got spectrum out of turn.

He had also questioned former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman Pradeep Baijal's role for benefiting Tatas by recommending converting limited mobility into full mobility licences (called Unified Access Service Licence).

To this, TTSL said: "...linking a former regulator whose powers were only to make non-binding recommendations, insinuating that he granted huge benefits to Tata Tele - this is not hing but a cheap gimmick."

The real beneficiaries of department of telecommunications's (DoT) "inconsistent and arbitrary" policies were incumbent GSM operators who were issued 48 GSM licences and allocated  65 MHz of additional spectrum free of charge, beyond the contracted spectrum, between 2004 and 2008, TTSL said.

On spectrum hoarding, TTSL said the recent the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report and TRAI's recommendations of May 2010 have pointed out that operators holding GSM spectrum beyond the contracted amount of 6.2 MHz should pay for excess spectrum.

"We have repeatedly clarified that TTSL is still waiting for GSM spectrum in 10 circles and is waiting for approval to offer dual technology in services in three circle," the statement said.

TTSL was one of the two major operators (along with Reliance Communications) who had got permission to offer dual technology services (both CDMA and GSM) in 2007 and the policy was opposed by all the existing operators, saying this was back door entry into GSM platform.

TTSL asserted that the company got the licences, be it full mobility licences or dual technology, only after the policy came into effect and after paying the same amount as was paid by others.

"In fact, 48 new GSM licences were issued between 2004 and 2008 (which included six to Bharti, nine to Vodafone, 11 to Idea, one to Reliance and 21 to Aircel, apart from a further 113 licences in 2008 on the same norms — of fees equivalent to that paid by the fourth cellular licence," TTSL said.