The war of words between Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal intensified on Friday, after Reliance Communications made a direct attack at Bharti Airtel for allegedly capturing excess spectrum by misleading the department of telecommunications (DoT).

It also said GSM operators, led by Bharti, be forced to return spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz.

Condemning Bharti Airtel for being self-contradictory and changing positions, RComm said the GSM operator was causing revenue loss to the government by hoarding the scarce resource spectrum, and that its false claims have been nailed by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and Telecom Engineering Commission (TEC)?s scientific calculations.

?Bharti Airtel has illegally captured spectrum in excess of 6.2 MHz by misleading DoT. Bharti has deprived the government of India of thousands of crore of revenues by hoarding valuable spectrum. Excess spectrum of Bharti and other operators aggregates 50 MHz across circles, far beyond its needs,? it said in a media statement.

Responding to RComm charges, a Bharti spokesperson said, ?Bharti would not like to respond to this attempt to spread blatantly incorrect and grossly wrong information. Right from inception as a small company we have played our part in the building of this vital sector. All we want is fairness and a judicious approach to manage the spectrum situation, the way the world has managed it. Its also time for some of our detractors to accept that others have an equal opportunity and right to succeed in this country?.

RComm?s reaction comes to Mittal?s statement a day earlier when he asked CDMA operators, led by Reliance Communications, to stop spreading misinformation over spectrum issues.

Refuting Rcom?s calculations regarding quantum of airwaves allotted, Mittal had asked the operator to get its mathematics right.

RComm also said GSM operators? stance is anti-competition, anti-consumer, monopolistic, and leads to cartelisation.

The company has said that if the norms proposed by TEC were accepted, at least 55 MHz of spectrum would become available by way of getting refund from Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular.