The department of telecommunications (DoT) will hold a meeting with leading service providers Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular to resolve the issue of third generation (3G) roaming agreements.
"We have received the law ministry’s view. We will hold a consultation with telecom players before taking any final decision," DoT secretary R Chandrashekhar said on Monday.
Last week, in a jointly signed letter, heads of Airtel, Idea and Vodafone had sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention in the dispute over the 3G roaming pact and had threatened to surrender spectrum.
Under the agreements between the telecom players, the three companies offer services in circles where they don’t hold 3G spectrum. DoT’s internal wings had termed the pacts illegal and in violation of license conditions and norms. Even the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had said that prima facie it was a "violation of the terms and conditions of the license” and could have serious financial implications for the government. That was because operators could provide 3G services in circles where they had not paid for spectrum, which the government had auctioned.
However, the operators claim such a provision was allowed under the licence conditions and was written specifically in the notice inviting applications document for 3G auction.
Telecom Panel meet inconclusive
Meanwhile, the Telecom Commission, the highest policy-making body of the DoT, failed to take any decision on mergers and acquisitions and pricing allocation of excess 2G spectrum, based on the recommendations of the telecom regulator.
“No decision was taken today. We hope to finalise on Trai's recommendations in a week,” Chandrasekhar said. The next meeting may take place on December 1.
