The employee union of the state-run BSNL has complained to the government over prejudice in the telecom regulator?s recommendations on 2G spectrum.
In a letter written to the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the general secretary of Sanchar Nigam Association, GL Yogi has said, ? Trai is all set to inflict irreversible and fatal damage on the growth of the company by recommending arbitrary, discriminatory and irrational set of spectrum related issues that have huge potential of crippling the growth of BSNL?.
The general secretary has written that the regulator?s recommendation of withdrawing excess spectrum beyond 10 mhz is baseless since the company doesn?t hold spectrum beyond 10 mhz in any circle.
The letter comes after a large section of the telecom industry has cried foul over the regulator?s recommendations and the matter now rests with the empowered group of ministers who will take the final call on the recommendations.
The regulator had ruled out the auction of 2G spectrum and capped spectrum allotment at 10 mhz. It further recommended that spectrum beyond 6.2 mhz should be priced as a multiple of the 3G spectrum auction price.
Yogi has said, ?Trai is forcing BSNL to pay more than 50% of the total revenue that exchequer is expected to earn through the new spectrum management regimen. In sharp contrast all private operators together holding more than 85% of the GSM spectrum are expected to contribute less than 50%?.
The union is also furious over the regulator?s proposal of doing away with any roll-out obligations for the new operators while making it more stringent for the state run telco by recommending additional roll-out obligation.
Yogi has criticised Trai?s recommendations of mandating BSNL to provide intra-circle roaming facility to the private operators to facilitate the launch of their services. ?BSNL will have to make massive investment to provide this facility to 10-12 operators in each circle.