Wait and watch

New Delhi, Nov. 12: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) today directed the department of telecom (DoT) not to allocate spectrum to any player till December 12, the next date of hearing of a petition filed by GSM operators.

On October 19, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) challenged the government’s decision to permit operators to use both GSM and CDMA technologies. The GSM lobby had filed additional affidavits on November 7, questioning the Telecom Engineering Centre’s (TEC) report and the allocation of additional spectrum to state-run firms BSNL and MTNL.

The telecom tribunal today also directed CDMA players Reliance Communications, HFCL, Shyam Telelinks, BSNL and MTNL to be party to the petition challenging changes in spectrum allocation norms.

The COAI’s petition had stated that the government’s decision to allow CDMA players to enter GSM services and granting in-principal approval to higher subscriber base for additional spectrum was in favour of Reliance Communications.

So, the TDSAT bench decided to direct CDMA players and state-run companies to present their side of the story in the court.

The COAI represents operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, while Spice Telecom, which had earlier dissociated itself from the GSM body, was represented separately today.

In its report, the TEC, which is the technical arm of the DoT, had recommended that telecom companies would have to increase their subscriber base four to 15 times before they were granted additional spectrum.

At present, spectrum allocation is based on the number of subscribers that operators have in a given circle.

The tribunal admitted the COAI’s petition on October 24, but it has not issued notices to anyone so far.

Faced with stiff opposition from the GSM lobby, which made several representations to the communications ministry and had even demanded the Prime Minister’s intervention, the DoT had set up a committee to review the TEC report.

The DoT said the committee would come out with new allocation norms that are “scientific and practicable”, indicating that the recommendations made by the TEC could be changed.