COAI Rubbishes AUSPI's Claim

Rubbishing the claim of AUSPI that GSM operators are not paying for the
additional spectrum allotted to them and that there is a cap of 6.2 MHz spectrum
for GSM operators, COAI, sent a letter to A Raja, minister for communication and
information technology, requesting the Ministry to look into the serious and
baseless allegation being leveled by AUSPI against the government.

The letter stated that, AUSPI and the CDMA operators have, during the last
few weeks, been repeatedly hurling serious allegations against the government as
regards the spectrum policy which has been in vogue for the last several years
and is now demanding "a high level enquiry" into how
"additional" spectrum was given to GSM operators.

TV Ramachandran, Director General, COAI stated that the government has been
allotting spectrum to the GSM operators as per license conditions and as per the
WPC guidelines as issued from time to time.

He also pointed out that the government since many years has practiced the
present method of spectrum allocations on the basis of "usage,
justification, and availability" consistently, through several ministers,
heads of administration and wireless advisors.

He further emphasized that the prevalent policy has the express sign off of
even the CDMA lobby that participated in this exercise in 2003 to determine
subscriber linked spectrum allotments and also future allocation of upto 15 MHz
per GSM operator.

He stated that the CDMA operators were most welcome to seek an enquiry into
the issue of allotment of additional spectrum as the policy had been formulated
in an open and transparent manner through several ministers, heads of
administration and wireless advisors and even the industry stakeholders.

He however requested the minister that as the issues of spectrum and mobility
were "joined at the hip" any enquiry on spectrum should first examine
how the CDMA operators got into mobility services.

In this regard, Ramachandran referred to the 2003 Judgment of Justice D.P.
Wadhwa, the then chairman, TDSAT who had held that "the grant of limited
mobile and use of handsets is not legal" and had further gone on to direct
that the licenses of the Fixed Service providers "shall be revoked" to
the extent that they had been modified to allow limited mobility.