GSM body hits out at RCom on hoarding charge

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has fired a fresh salvo against Reliance Communications (RCom) alleging that one CDMA operator is making "blatant and misleading allegations" that GSM operators are not entitled to spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz.

It has also demanded that CDMA operators return all the spectrum that they have received beyond 3.75 Mhz.

It was responding to a series of letters written by RCom Chairman Anil Ambani to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting that the three top operators should give back over 50 MHz spectrum that they have received in excess of what they were entitled to.

In its letter to DoT Secretary DS Mathur, the COAI said by virtue of the contractual settlement entered into between the industry and the government in 2002, GSM operators were entitled to spectrum up to 10 MHz.

That contractual entitlement has been now been extended, the letter says, vide various government guidelines, to 15 MHz. The COAI has also attached a summary of legal experts like CS Vaidyanathan, Fali S Nariman and Anil B Divan, among others.

The COAI pointed out that the guidelines issued on March 29, 2006, "expressly recognise that 4.4 MHz is the initial allotment for GSM operators."

Putting the ball in the court of Reliance and CDMA operators, the letter says if their contention that 6.2 MHz be the cap for GSM operators is accepted, they will have to return all the spectrum that they have received beyond 3.75 MHz (some of them have up to 5 MHz).

It says that "based on the 1:2 ratio applied by the DoT under licence (as CDMA was considered more efficient, the government decided they would get lesser spectrum than GSM and the ratio was fixed at 1: 2), it means that CDMA operators already have double the amount of spectrum ...and they are not entitled to spectrum beyond 3.75 MHz".

Meanwhile, the COAI has also attacked Communication Minister A Raja's statement in Parliament that the government had asked the regulator if there was a need to review the policy allowing telecom companies to fix tariffs.

"The right to fix tariffs lies only with Trai and there is no way the DoT can interfere. However, under a certain section of the Trai Act, it can issue policy directions, which it has never done or does only in the rarest of cases . If it really uses that power, it will be a ridiculous exercise," said COAI Director-General T V Ramachandran.