Consider only us - Cellular Operators Association of India

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) — the lobby for service providers using GSM technology — has demanded that all spectrum allocation for new circles and existing one should be made transparently on a first-come first-serve basis based on the date of application.

In its 30-slide presentation to Communications Minister A Raja, GSM operators have also demanded that incumbent GSM operators, whose licence applications are pending since December 2006, must be placed on a “different footing from other applicants and accorded top priority for issue if license and initial spectrum”.

The move will benefit telecom operators like Spice Telecom (which has applied for a licence in 20 circles) and Idea Cellular (which has applied for licences in nine circles) since December 2006 . It will also benefit Aircel, Vodafone Essar and Bharti Airtel, which have licences but are waiting for spectrum for over a year or two.

The meeting which was called by Raja to hear out the telecom operators was attended by Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti group , Asim Ghosh, CEO of Vodafone-Essar Ltd, Manoj Kohli, president of Bharti Airtel, Spice Telecom promoter B K Modi, Idea Cellular chief Sanjeev Aga and representatives of Reliance, COAI and the Association of United Telecom Service Providers — the CDMA-technology association.

Said T V Ramachandran, director general of COAI, “We have requested the government to differentiate between serious and non-serious telecom players.” Concerned with the deluge of applications for telecom licences — some 30 companies have applied for over 300 licences — the GSM lobby has suggested preference be given to companies with telecom experience and who are ready to accept a five-year lock-in period before they can sell their equity.

It has also recommended that the cross-holding restriction, under which one company cannot take more than 10 per cent in another company in the same service area, should be enforced rigorously.

Strongly attacking the recent deluge of applications, COAI in its presentation pointed out that interest from non-telecom companies appears to be driven only by financial speculation as a result of the flawed recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which has created an impression of abundant spectrum availability. GSM operators pointed out that they did not rule out prospect of spectrum grabbing and subsequent sale at profit to foreign telcos.

Bharti peeved by govt's schoolmasterly treatment

Bharti Airtel, India's largest private mobile operator, today expressed concern over the government imposing penalties on "small issues", saying this hampers growth of the sector and spreads fear among investors.

"It is unfair to impose penalties. The Department of Telecom pulls out show cause notices for every small issue. This is hampering the growth of the sector," Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal said at a meeting of telecom minister A Raja with the operators here today. "It spreads fear among investors."

He cited an example of notices issued by the government to private telecom operators for having mobile telephony signals along the country's borders.

He also asked the minister to rationalise the duties being paid by telecom operators.

Raja held an hour-long meeting with operators and their associations to review the telecom scenario, and sought their suggestions before finalising guidelines and any policy relating to allocation of spectrum or issuing fresh licences.

Mittal also criticised the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) over its recent recommendations on spectrum saying there were many technical faults. Trai issued eight corrections last week itself and asked Raja not to accept them without analysing their impact on the sector, he added.