Stay or not a stay. Literally, that was the bone of contention between the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which lobbies on behalf of GSM players, and Association of Unified Service Providers of India (Auspi), which does the same for CDMA operators. On Wednesday, the government assured the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal that there would be no allocation of spectrum to any operator till November 12, the next tribunal hearing date. Simple enough? Not quite. The words were interpreted differently by COAI director general TV Ramachandran and Auspi secretary general SC Khanna. The former was clear that it was a ?stay? (a legal command that holds a move in abeyance) on DoT?s decision to forge a technology-agnostic regulatory regime. Khanna, however, was insistent that it was not a stay. It seems the two technology formats have agreed to disagree on almost everything, down to the legalese.
Just skidding
Some newly appointed honchos of a newly formed national public air carrier were scheduled to get acquainted with their new underlings in Delhi. When the sales team turned up to meet their new boss, he happened to be busy, so they were left hanging around the man?s office in the narrow corridor outside. As circumstance would have it, some journalists had also been invited over. The instant this unexpected presence struck the sales crew, they put their quick decision-making skills into practice. ?Let?s go upstairs,? said one, ?we look like we?re on strike.? And the crew dispersed before any damage could be done.
