Anil Ambani writes to PM, slams GSM
operators' claims on spectrum
Our Bureau
The war of letters
between honchos of mobile companies over Government's spectrum policy has
intensified further with Reliance Communication's Chairman, Mr
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani,
writing to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in
support of the decisions taken by the Communications Ministry.
Mr Ambani
told the Prime Minister that the policymaking process adopted by the Department
of Telecom was completely transparent and the GSM operators are adopting an
anti-consumer and anti-competitive stance in spreading false and misleading
propaganda against the policy makers.
Earlier, existing GSM
operators including Mr Sunil Mittal,
Chairman, Bharti Airtel; Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Idea Cellular; and Mr
Arun Sarin, Chief Executive
Officer, Vodafone; had shot off letters to the Prime Minister criticising the Communications Ministry's spectrum
allocation policy that allegedly favoured a few
companies including Reliance Communication. However, Mr
Ambani has backed the Communications Ministry's
policies and said that the GSM players were spreading myths that it was favouring any particular company.
"The motivated game
plan of a few large GSM operators in the country is simple - prevent the entry
of new players in the GSM space, hoard spectrum, and limit new competition,
indulge in anti-consumer practices such as cartelisation
and price fixation, delay implementation of all new initiatives indefinitely
through a combination of litigation and policy uncertainty to enhance their own
dominance, and make the cost of entry for new players prohibitive and
unviable," Mr Ambani
said in the letter.
On the specific
allegation made by the GSM operators that RCom has
been arbitrarily allowed to offer GSM services, Mr Ambani said that the DoT had
followed a due process which included a comprehensive public consultation by
the telecom regulator.
He added
that contrary to the perception that dual technology approval has been given
only to Reliance, DoT has granted approvals to two
other operators and is in the process of granting approval to Tata Teleservices.
Excess spectrum
On GSM operators' claims
that the subscriber linked spectrum allocation norms specified by the Telecom
Engineering Centre was unrealistic, Mr Ambani said that the large GSM operators had so far taken
spectrum free of charge and far more than 6the .2 Mhz
which was what they were entitled to.
"In line with the
global practice, there is a strong case for DoT to
now demand the surrender of excess spectrum wrongfully being enjoyed by the
existing GSM players, far in excess of their needs, and far beyond anything
they were entitled as per their original licence
conditions," Mr Ambani
said in the letter.
On the issue of
auctioning spectrum, Mr Ambani
said that auction of spectrum will only benefit existing mobile operators as it
will push the cost of entry for a new player, making it unviable for them.
Mr Ambani
has urged the Prime Minister to "see through the motivated agenda of a few
existing GSM operators and not succumb to their pressure tactics."
Source: The Hindu
Business Line
Telecom News dated