The government, through its counsel Solicitor General G E Vahanavati, today assured Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) that no spectrum would be given to any player till November 12 - the next date of hearing of the petition filed by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) against the government. COAI had filed a case againt the government yesterday asking for a stay on its decision to allow usage of "dual spectrum" to telecom firms within the same licence. This means that a CDMA operator like Reliance Communications will now be permitted to get GSM spectrum with the same licence. Reliance, which had applied for GSM spectrum in 15 circles in February 2006, has already been given an in-principle clearance by the government, and has also paid the equivalent amount of a UASL licence per circle.The assurance before TDSAT was followed later by Communications minister A Raja stating on the sidelines of a conference in Delhi that no one would be given spectrum until a scientific evaluation is completed by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC). The minister said that TEC would submit its report by October 30. The TEC was mandated by the department of telecommunications (DoT) to look into the recommendations of Trai, which has recommended a hike in the subscriber-based criterion for allocation of additional spectrum.
