New telecom players to float lobby parallel to COAI

NEW DELHI: New entrants to the telecom sector and those which have got GSM licences under the dual-technology policy of the government will form an association parallel to the existing lobby, COAI, to fight for their rights and bring fair competition in the sector.

Seven companies including Videocon-promoted Data Com, Shyam Telelink, Swan Telecom and S Tel have been issued licences in January this year and have deposited the required spectrum fee with the government, but are yet to be allocated radio frequency.

CDMA operators Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices were given permit to provide GSM services across the country under the cross-over technology policy of the government.

One of the new operators has accused the existing GSM players of cartelisation and adopting tactics to delay the allocation of spectrum to the new players so that they could not start mobile services at the earliest.

The COAI has three major telecom operators namely Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular and two regional operators -- Spice and Aircel -- as its members.

Differences in the existing association had came to fore during the recent controversy over spectrum allocation and issuance of new telecom licences.

"We want to work for fair and free competition in the telecom sector for the unhindered growth of this sector and million of subscribers. We will ensure that anti-competitive practices are not allowed in this fast growing telecom sector," one of the new players said on the condition of anonymity.

Asked whether charter of new parallel association has been prepared and who would be heading it, the players said that in the coming week all these decision would be announced.

The association will get a major advantage of presence of India's two large private sector firms namely Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications and Ratan Tata-promoted Tata Teleservices.

Reliance has already been allocated GSM frequency, while Tatas are waiting for the same.

All the new players said they would not allow anyone to hoard the scarce spectrum so that it could be used efficiently and right kind of technologies was adopted by the mobile operators.

Asked whether it was true that some of the operators were hoarding the spectrum, the new players said there have been cases in several areas where spectrum has been unutilised by the existing operators due to lack of subscribers, but they have not returned it. This should be checked immediately, the demanded.

Once the parallel association is formed, the government is bound to listen to their set of problems and demands, which, the industry sources, said would badly hit the interests of the existing GSM players and their association COAI.

On the reason for the new players to go for such an association, one of the entities said "we feel the existing players are misleading the government by adopting tactics to delay allocation of spectrum to new players and this was hurting their businesses".

Although the government has promised to allocate spectrum to new players soon, no indication has yet been given as to when and who would be getting the frequency first.