New Delhi, Jan 06: The government today accused the
Big Three GSM mobile players -- Airtel, Vodafone and Idea --
of adopting tactics to stop the entry of new operators and
hoard spectrum beyond their contractual obligations.
Arguing before tribunal TDSAT on a petition filed by COAI
- the GSM lobby that challenged the government's dual spectrum
policy, senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for DoT, said:
"Since the beginning, the government was aware of the tendency
of these three big operators to prevent others from entering
into the field."
Rejecting COAI's allegation that GSM spectrum was
allotted to Anil Ambani-led RCom illegally, DoT submitted that
the GSM operators were just trying to delay the allotment and
rather they should look into their own case of hoarding extra
spectrum.
"The spectrum which has been given to them (existing GSM
players like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea) is beyond the terms of
the agreement... they want to take more by depriving the new
players like RCom and Tatas," he said.
The government has been facing allegations of allotting
spectrum to GSM operators in excess of the contracted 6.2 MHz
and that too free of cost, and has asked DoT to work out a
one-time payment for the extra radio frequency held by them.
Singh further added that it was not the first time these
operators were doing it.
"In the case of Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) also, they
did the same and delayed the whole issue by way of litigations
and court proceedings," submitted Singh.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, January 06, 2009, 00:00