No consensus between mobile firms, DoT

No consensus emerged between the Department of Telecom (DoT) and the mobile service providers on the spectrum allocation issue at a two-hour long meeting held today. The meeting was held between the telecom Secreatry D S Mathur and the heads of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications among others.

Senior DoT officials however continued to meet the heads of mobile companies individually to resolve the issue of spectrum allocation to new and existing telecom companies.

Bharti Airtel chairman and managing director Sunil Mittal declined to talk to the media after the meeting saying "the operators have been asked not to make any comment". Vodafone-Essar MD Asim Ghosh was also present in the meeting among others.

As there was no consensus among the operators, Mathur asked operators to meet him individually later today, sources said.

According to sources, Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani raised the issue of extra spectrum being held by GSM operators. Some of the operators also demanded that Letter of Intent for new telephony licences should be issued immediately as in the last two years the government has granted over 50 permissions or LoIs under the same policy.

According to industry sources, Mathur requested GSM operators to withdraw their petition from TDSAT.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has challenged government's new norms including enhanced subscriber base and allowing of dual technology by a single operator under the same licence.

However, the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) today did not take cognizance of the affidavit filed by the COAI on Tuesday. Sources said there was no direction to COAI by the tribunal to file either a rejoinder or an affidavit in reply to the one submitted by DoT to defend its new telecom norms that allowed dual technology for mobile services and enhanced subscriber linked criteria for spectrum.