DoT sidesteps GoM, farms out spectrum

New policy linked to operators' subscriber base, and retains present 2:1 allocation for GSM & CMDA.

In a significant departure from convention, the department of telecomunication on Thursday today announced a new spectrum allocation policy without waiting for a group of ministers' recommendations on the issue.

The new policy, which became effective today, is linked to an operator's subscriber base and retains the present 2:1 allocation for GSM and CDMA.

It brings about parity between the two technologies by doing away with a condition that required CDMA operators to add more users than their GSM counterparts for getting extra spectrum. Now both will need to have an identical number of users to get the extra quota.

Headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the GoM was constituted on the instructions of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last November.

The group was supposed to finalise a new spectrum policy and included Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Home Minister Shivraj Patil,

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia apart from communications minister Dayanidhi Maran. However, it is not believed to have met even once till date.

DoT officials said that its Spectrum Allocation Procedure Committee was only doing its duty. "This committee was constituted first in June 2005. The GoM came much later. In that sense, it was ahead in the race," government sources said.

However, the operators have slammed the new norms. They said the DoT has resorted to "shifting the goal posts by specifying unrealistically high subscriber numbers for more spectrum".

When contacted, a leading CDMA operator spokesperson said: "The new policy has been brought about to undermine the authority of the GoM. We are going to ask the Department to wait for the recommendations of the GoM".

"Such ad hoc actions by the DoT will only add to the prevailing confusion and will lead to a new round of litigation within the industry," another leading operator said.

GSM operators were muted in response and instead complained that "the norms were lax and did not meet their demands".