By IANS
New Delhi : The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Thursday announced its decision to approach the Delhi High Court against the telecom tribunal’s directive to the government to start issuing start-up radio frequency to some operators.
COAI is a body representing leading telecom operators offering services under the global system of mobile communication (GSM) technology including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Spice.
The case is likely to be filed on Saturday and a vacation bench of the High Court would hear the matter, as the court is currently taking the winter break, according to industry sources.
“All the four members of COAI, namely Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Spice, who are parties in the original petition before TDSAT (Telecom Appellate and Disputes Settlement Tribunal), have unitedly decided to approach the Delhi High Court in a writ petition against the non-speaking interim order given by the Hon’ble TDSAT on December 12, 2007,” the COAI said in a statement.
The TDSAT last week instructed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to start allocating start-up spectrum of the 6.2 MHz band to those who have applied for it before Sep 25 and also to firms that have obtained dual technology license such as Reliance Communications.
“The DoT decision is an attempt to pass off a second and new GSM license to CDMA (code division multiple access) operators in the garb of dual technology allocations. It is an attempt to overturn the well set practice of addressing spectrum and license requirements in sequence based on the date of application,” COAI stated.
“The GSM operators have been waiting for months and years for grant of license and spectrum and were rightfully deserving of prior consideration by the government for their right to licenses and spectrum.”
Spectrum or radio frequency is the lifeline of telecom operators for their business development and expansion.
India is adding about eight million subscribers a month. Such a humongous growth has led to this need for additional spectrum.
Earlier this month, the COAI had walked out of the spectrum allocation committee set up by the DoT’s technical arm, Telecom Engineering Centre.