Telecom firms cry foul over new spectrum policy

Private firms irked at DoT consulting only BSNL.

The department of telecommunications, while announcing the Spectrum Policy ahead of the Group of Ministers' findings on the issue, has ignored the recommendations of its internal committees.

To make matters worse, private telecom companies are upset that only state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was consulted on the policy.

Private telcos told Business Standard that they were considering the legal ramifications of the DoT consulting only BSNL, the third largest player in mobile telephony after Bharti Tele-Ventures and Reliance Infocomm.

The subscriber-based linkages for spectrum for both GSM and CDMA-based service providers announced in the final policy are higher by up to 200,000 subscribers when compared to the figures proposed by the February 2005 report of the DoT's Spectrum Allocation Procedure Committee, under the chairmanship of its wireless advisor, P K Garg.

Besides, the wireless advisor, in another submission on February 20, 2005, had reiterated the subscriber-based numbers brought out by the committee and sought approval for the same.

Garg had also reiterated that "the committee's roadmap was in consistence with the existing licence stipulations as well as the technological requirements of both standards".

Incidentally, these recommendations are also in sync with those brought out by similar groups set up by the DoT in 2004 and 2003 to address the issue of future spectrum allocation.

Even as private operators on both technological platforms are unhappy with the new policy, they are also crying foul over the fact that the "wireless advisor, while presenting his recommendations, had said that the issue had been discussed with a senior-level BSNL executive".

"We are planning to take up this issue with the Prime Minister's office on whose instructions the GoM was set up," said an executive with a service provider.

For metros and category B circles, the DoT's final spectrum policy announced last week has hiked subscribers by 100,000 as compared to the recommendations of its internal committees, while for category A and C telecom circles, the final policy has brought about a 200,000 increase.