The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Tuesday upheld the government?s stand on allowing operators such as Reliance Communications Ltd and Tata Teleservices Ltd who earlier operated on CDMA technology to also roll out GSM services.
In a major setback to the GSM operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular, the tribunal also rejected the GSM operators association, the Cellular Operators Association of India’s (COAI) contention that as per licence condition and National Telecom Policy, 1999, they have the right to hold spectrum up to 15 MHz.
The COAI had filed a petition contending the government?s decision to allow operators to use dual technology.
Clarifying that concept of dual technology under which CDMA operators such as RComm and others got GSM spectrum was not new, the tribunal?s judgement noted, ?A reading of NTP 99 and the licence condition reveals that the concept of dual technology is not a new concept and that this is contained in the above documents?.
The tribunal?s decision would come as a big respite for Rcomm and TTSL, who were allocated GSM spectrum last year.
Subsequent to it Rcomm has already begun its pan-India GSM rollout while TTSL has announced investments to the tune of over $1.5 billion for its GSM network.
The rejection of the COAI?s contention that operators have the right to hold up to 15 Mhz spectrum implies that operators like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Essar, which hold spectrum in excess of 6.2 Mhz would have to either pay extra for it or return it to the government.
The telecom licence entails provision of spectrum up to 6.2 Mhz beyond which the government issues through an administrative order.
In another ruling, which comes as a relief to the GSM operators, the tribunal rejected the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s (Trai) subscriber-linked spectrum allocation. Giving its verdict on a petition filed by COAI challenging the Trai norms the tribunal said that Trai hadn?t been fair and transparent while arriving at the subscriber linked spectrum allocation formula. The GSM operators have long been complaining that the amount of spectrum allocated in India is one-third the amount operators are allocated globally.
?We hold that Trai was wrong in arriving at revised subscriber norms based on a theoretical simulation and that too, without an opportunity being given to all stakeholders to debate the issue,? TDSAT said in its judgement.
Call rejected
• The tribunal also rejected the Cellular Operators Association of India’s contention that as per licence condition and National Telecom Policy, 1999, they have the right to hold spectrum up to 15 MHz
• In another ruling, which comes as a relief to the GSM operators, the tribunal rejected the Trai’s recommendation on subscriber link criteria for spectrum allocation, saying it was not fair and transparent
