New Delhi, Oct 9 (UNI) Alleging favouritism in allotment of spectrum, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) today said there should be a level playing field and spectrum be allotted to all eligible GSM applicants.
The Department of Telecom is understood to have given additional spectrum to BSNL for mobile services in 17 circles, taking the allocation of radio waves to the state-run firm to a maximum of 10 Mhz in each of these regions.
''Such preferential and out of turn allotment of spectrum was a clear violation of the contractual and legal rights of the private GSM operators,'' COAI Director General T V Ramachandran said in a letter to department of telecommunication (DoT).
Despite a legal notice being served calling upon the Government to forthwith allot additional spectrum to the private GSM operators as per their eligibility under the existing criteria, no response had been received from the Government nor had any spectrum allotments been made pursuant to the same and instead out of turn spectrum allotments had been made to BSNL, he added.
''It was incumbent and necessary for the DoT to immediately restore level playing field and allot upto 10 MHz spectrum to all eligible and entitled GSM applicants who had been waiting for months or even years for spectrum allotments,'' the letter said.
The letter also pointed out that separate Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) analysis be done for spectrum use by CDMA operators.
UNI
The Department of Telecom is understood to have given additional spectrum to BSNL for mobile services in 17 circles, taking the allocation of radio waves to the state-run firm to a maximum of 10 Mhz in each of these regions.
''Such preferential and out of turn allotment of spectrum was a clear violation of the contractual and legal rights of the private GSM operators,'' COAI Director General T V Ramachandran said in a letter to department of telecommunication (DoT).
Despite a legal notice being served calling upon the Government to forthwith allot additional spectrum to the private GSM operators as per their eligibility under the existing criteria, no response had been received from the Government nor had any spectrum allotments been made pursuant to the same and instead out of turn spectrum allotments had been made to BSNL, he added.
''It was incumbent and necessary for the DoT to immediately restore level playing field and allot upto 10 MHz spectrum to all eligible and entitled GSM applicants who had been waiting for months or even years for spectrum allotments,'' the letter said.
The letter also pointed out that separate Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) analysis be done for spectrum use by CDMA operators.
UNI
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