Date:28/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/12/28/stories/2007122852260400.htm

RCom sends notice to Govt against TRAI’s spectrum allocation norms

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Dec. 27 The battle for spectrum is back to square one with both CDMA and GSM operators rejecting the Government’s decision to accept the subscriber-linked spectrum allocation criteria suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Country’s largest CDMA player Reliance Communications has sent a legal notice to the Government against DoT’s decision on Wednesday, to allocate additional spectrum to existing GSM operators as per the number of subscribers suggested by TRAI instead of the ones suggested by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC).

RCom said in its notice that the Government should enforce the TEC norms and all fresh allocation to existing GSM players should be put on hold.

CDMA operators including Tata Teleservices said that the Government has come under pressure from GSM operators to accept the TRAI norms instead of the higher subscriber levels suggested by TEC.

“AUSPI feels that not accepting the TEC report of October 2007 is contrary to the earlier decision of DoT by which it accepted the TEC report in principle. Even the spectrum review committee of DoT has not found any deficiency in the TEC report. Rejecting the TEC norms and accepting TRAI norms is arbitrary and the decision seems to have been taken under pressure from the GSM lobby,” said Mr S.C. Khanna, Secretary General, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI).

On the other hand, the Cellular Operators Association of India said that the TRAI recommendations on subscriber-linked criteria have serious flaws and it can be only accepted if existing operators get additional spectrum based on current norms.