GSM mobile operators, which had earlier pulled out of the spectrum review committee alleging bias against them, today virtually supported its report, and said its acceptance by the government to allot airwaves was the "best way forward" to resolve the logjam over spectrum.The government had yesterday decided that additional spectrum to existing GSM players would be alloted based on Trai's formula.Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the lobby of GSM players, had shown its willingness to accept this decision. "In the interest of moving forward and to ensure that the task of achieving national telecom objectives are not held up due to a indefinite freeze on additional spectrum allocation, the acceptance of the review committee report is to be considered a way forward," COAI said today.In a letter to Telecom Secretary D S Mathur, COAI director general T V Ramachandran said Trai's subscriber-linked criteria had serious flaws and the association continued to have various objections to these norms.It said that all applications of existing GSM players pending for initial or additional spectrum till date must be honoured as per their eligibility under the criteria that was prevalent at the time of putting in applications."Trai criteria may be accepted only as an interim solution in order to facilitate a way forward," COAI said, adding it would continue to pursue its petition in TDSAT.FULL COVERAGE: SPECTRUM TANGLE
