NEW TWIST

New Delhi, Oct. 23: Mobile phone operators offering GSM technology today moved the telecom tribunal, challenging the government’s move to offer GSM licences to CDMA players .

In its petition to the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), the Cellular Operators Association of India (Coai), representing the interest of GSM operators, said the new telecom guidelines favoured only CDMA service providers and adversely affected GSM players.

According to the Coai, the guidelines were framed in a “completely non-transparent manner”. Already, three CDMA operators — Reliance Communications (R-Com), HFCL and Shyam Telecom — have received GSM licences, while Tata Teleservices has applied for one.

Though Coai officials did not name Reliance, existing GSM players were reportedly opposed to the entry of the company. Within hours of government permission, R-Com had paid Rs 1,651 crore to the department of telecom (DoT) as fees for GSM spectrum.

This puts R-Com ahead of GSM players such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone for spectrum. The Coai declined to comment on the issue, saying the matter was subjudice.

In the petition, the Coai stated that in 1999-2000, some GSM players applied for CDMA spectrum but were denied by the DoT.

The telecom department had then argued that a GSM player could operate on the CDMA platform only in the frequency band allotted to the GSM player.

The GSM operators were not allowed to avail themselves of CDMA spectrum because these were earmarked for fixed-line service providers. “In other words, GSM operators were refused spectrum allocation in the CDMA band,” the petition said. The Coai cited the case of Bharti Airtel which surrendered CDMA spectrum after receiving the universal access service licence.

Bharti had to forgo the spectrum despite paying the fees because the government did not allow an operator to hold both GSM and CDMA spectrum under the same licence.

The petition also refers to a DoT letter, dated April 13, 2007, to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India that ruled out GSM and CDMA spectrum to a single operator under the same licence.

The Coai says this is a “clear case of back-door entry of such CDMA operators and legally malafide”.