Nothing wrong in spectrum norms:Trai

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today dismissed mobile operators' allegations of being non-transparent while recommending criteria to allocate spectrum to existing players and said it has not violated any law.

"We are a regulator and expected to ensure enforcement of law. We cannot even dream of violating the law," Trai officials said.

The GSM players' lobby, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), is considering approaching the Department of Telecom (DoT) against Trai's recommendations saying the regulator did not consult them before finalising its report.

COAI Director General T V Ramchandran said that even the calculations done by Trai for the purpose of allocation of additional spectrum were "ridiculous" and accused the regulator of bypassing the consultation procedure.

Asked whether COAI would challenge the recommendations, Ramachandran said: "We are studying all available options. We shall make presentation to DoT first as Trai has made only recommendations and DoT is yet to accept or reject it."

Trai chairman Nripendra Misra refused to comment on the allegations made by the private operators.

The regulator had, on August 29, suggested framing a new spectrum allocation criteria for mobile operators as part of its recommendations on review of licence terms for companies. It had asked the government to enhance the present subscriber norms for spectrum allocation and also suggested raising the spectrum prices for GSM players.

COAI is of the view that Trai's recommendations would help new players get spectrum while existing operators would be denied additional frequency as the number of subscribers required for additional MHz has been increased between 2-6 times compared to current guidelines.