Seek review of unified licence guidelines: Cellular operators panel to Dept of Telecom

NEW DELHI: Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which promotes interests of GSM mobile phone companies such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, has asked the telecom department (DoT) to seek a review of the unified licence (UL) guidelines of granting mobile permits from the sector regulator, according to a September 18 letter.

The industry body adds that the UL guidelines issued on August 19 should be kept in abeyance as they are “coercive in nature” and added that unilateral imposition of the norms on incumbent telecom operators could lead to legal disputes.

“Provisions of migration to UL are coercive in nature as the UL guidelines require compulsory migration to UL in several circumstances, which infringe on the rights of our member operators to do business under the existing contracts/agreements signed with the DoT,” COAI director general Rajan S Mathews said in the letter.

Referring to migration rules framed in 1999 under the telecom policy where operators were given the choice to shift to new permits, COAI said the same principle has been ignored while framing the new rules.

The new licences does not differentiate between 2G, 3G or 4G technology and allows companies to use any technology for providing mobile and other telecom services in service area where they have airwaves.