By IANS
New Delhi : Upset over the way the government intends to allocate radio frequencies to CDMA operators, India’s largest mobile telephony services firm Bharti Airtel offered Rs.26.5 billion to the department of telecommunications (DoT) for a pan-India spectrum.
“While we will continue to agitate, represent and follow up our legitimate legal options for our rightful entitlement of spectrum, we are compelled to seek an additional 4.4 Mhz, or any such start-up spectrum decided by the department, of pan-India GSM spectrum at par with the dual allocation as is being sought to be given to the CDMA operators,” Akhil Gupta, joint managing director, Bharti Airtel, said in a letter to the DoT.
“Considering the urgency of the matter for us to attend to the quality of network needs of the customers both present and the massive future growth, we herewith offer a sum of Rs.2,650 crore (Rs.26.5 billion), which is approximately Rs.1,000 crore (Rs.10 billion) over and above the current charge of a pan-India start-up spectrum of Rs.1,650 crore (Rs.16.5 billion),” Gupta added.
Airtel, which in association the GSM body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), has also filed a petition against the DoT in the telecommunications tribunal, said: “This offer, therefore, must not be, in any manner, seen as a dilution of the legal process already followed by us and other operators to seek justice in respect of the rights bestowed upon us under the existing policy, rules and guidelines.
“We await the issuance of letter from the department for us to immediately make the payment and seek this additional spectrum allocation.”
Gupta also reiterated that the delay in the allocation of spectrum by the government was hampering their services.
“The rightful and promised spectrum to the existing operators is being delayed or denied based on hyper technical parameters and erroneous calculations,” Gupta said in his letter to DoT Secretary D.S. Mathur.
“This is further getting influenced by a scandalous campaign being launched by some CDMA operators with the sole intent of depriving the existing GSM operators of their legitimate spectrum needs,” he said.
He also said an amicable solution to the entire spectrum tangle “seems unlikely and the issue is headed for a possible long litigation.”