COAI approaches DoT against Trai's proposals

Stung by the new proposed criteria for spectrum allocation to existing players, private GSM operators today petitioned the government and termed telecom regulator Trai's recommendations as flawed, based on incorrect assumptions and legally untenable.

In a detailed letter to the Department of Telecom (DoT) Secretary D S Mathur, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said the regulator did not follow the correct procedure and acted in a non-transparent manner.

"Recommendations on spectrum allocation and pricing have been made by Trai without following the due process as also the mandate of transparency as required under the Act. These issues were not raised as a part of the consultative process nor were the inputs from stakeholders shared transparently," the COAI said in the letter.

The regulator had, on August 29, suggested framing a new spectrum allocation criteria for mobile operators as a part of its recommendations on review of licence terms for companies.

It had asked the government to enhance the present subscriber norms for spectrum allocation and also suggested raising the spectrum prices for GSM players.

COAI director general T V Ramachamdran said in the letter that the ad-hoc and enhanced subscriber linkage criteria that has been recommended was based on assumptions that were incorrect, technically flawed and impossible to achieve.

The industry group accused the regulator of adopting partisan approach, saying "such an exercise has been carried out selectively only for GSM-based services. Further, even looking at deployment of spectrum optimisation techniques, the recommendations focus only on the GSM segment. There is no separate analysis for CDMA services."

"It is now an admitted fact that the present policy and licensing regime does not allow for cross-allotments of spectrum and a technology choice, once exercised, becomes the basis of all future allotments of spectrum," Ramachandran said.

Trai, on the other hand, has dismissed COAI's allegations, saying its job was to ensure enforcement of law and not to violate it. COAI also said crossover allotments of spectrum would irreversibly alter the competitive market situation. By allocating GSM spectrum to CDMA operators, the government would be reducing the quantum of spectrum available to GSM operators, which is not permissible, it said.

Indian policy and licensing regime is different from that prevailing in other parts of world and so, relying on 'global best practices' that have no connection with country's ground realities was a theoretical exercise.

The dual allotment of spectrum has been made in the light of global best practices so that there are no barriers to competition and innovation. However, globally, spectrum is awarded upfront to licensees and is not bundled with licence.