Bharti Airtel chairman & managing director Sunil Mittal on Thursday shot off a letter to DoT secretary DS Mathur expressing his ?extreme anguish? over the allocation of spectrum. His missive comes a day after the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) suggested increasing by almost eight times the subscriber criteria for GSM operators to be eligible for additional spectrum.
Stung by charges by TEC that private operators were not using their allotted spectrum efficiently, Mittal challenged state-run MTNL to set up two model networks in Delhi and Mumbai to demonstrate how an efficient network is run.
Highlighting that the industry supported competition and that Bharti?India?s largest and the world?s 10th largest mobile operator?itself was a product of competition, Mittal said, ?We would not claim to be experts in our sector, but can certainly claim some degree of knowledge to challenge the absurd proposed spectrum allocation, which has been put forth by TEC.?
?Before the department moves ahead with the revised norms for spectrum allocation, I would like to urge you to direct (DoT) to demonstrate and guide the industry for efficient spectrum use by immediately withdrawing a large part of spectrum from MTNL each in Mumbai and Delhi and then run an efficient, high-quality network meeting all the quality of service parameters laid out by Trai and show the way to the world how best to manage spectrum without compromising the customer?s interest,? Mittal added.
