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New Delhi, Oct. 23: State-run telecom giant Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)
on Tuesday announced investment of a whopping Rs
60,000 crore in next three years to expand its GSM,
Broadband and WLL services, a move that would help the PSU achieve top
position by 2010. "We will invest over Rs
20,000 crores every year till 2010 for expansion,
which will include laying down additional lines for GSM, WLL and
broadband," BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep
Goyal said. Most of the investment would come through internal
accruals as the PSU has sufficient reserves, he said but did not rule out
market borrowing at a later stage. "I don’t think we would need to go to
market at least for one year," he said. Although BSNL’s
profits would come under severe pressure as subsidy on rural operations has
been withdrawn, yet Mr Goyal
was hopeful of meeting the requirement internally. BSNL is aiming to regain
its third position after Bharti Airtel
and Reliance Communications in the near future as it hopes to get additional
capacity by January 2008. |
Source:
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GSM cos challenge DoT on guidelines |
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In the petition COAI said that the department of
telecom has acted with undue and unseemly haste in a bid to give advantage to
one set of operators over the others, thus denying equal opportunity and
level playing field to GSM operators. "The DoT called for
a meeting on October 18 and it is believed that the said approval was issued
to the CDMA operators at about |
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COAI sues DoT over dual
spectrum norms |
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BS Reporter / |
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The Cellular Operators
Association of India (COAI) — the lobby for GSM-technology mobile service
operators — has filed a suit against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) alleging that its decision to allow “crossover”
allotment of spectrum for both GSM and CDMA players smacks of “legal malafide”. |
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The suit asking for a stay
against the Government order permitting crossover allotment was filed today
at the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), which will
hear the petition tomorrow (Wednesday). |
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In its petition, the COAI
has said the DoT’s decision has been taken with
“unseemly” haste to benefit a few operators that have made a “backdoor entry”
on the basis of “invalid applications” given in February 2006. |
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The operators in question
are CDMA-technology service providers Reliance Communications (RCom), Himachal Futuristic
Communication Ltd (HFCL) and Shyam Telelink. |
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Last week, the government
had permitted crossover or dual spectrum usage to existing licensees. This
means that companies operating CDMA services would be eligible for GSM
spectrum on the same licence at Rs
1,680 crore for pan-Indian operations. |
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The COAI’s
petition alleges the DoT had “bypassed due process”
in allowing dual usage. It said the telecom ministry first took a decision on
or before October 18 to permit the allotment of GSM and CDMA spectrum on the
same licence, allowing CDMA operators to make
necessary payments (on October 18) before announcing its decision on allowing
dual spectrum on October 19 to the public and GSM operators through a press
release. |
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“...In-principle approval
has been issued to the CDMA operators even before the licences
were amended in order to make the decision a fait accompli,” the petition
says. |
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DoT’s decision principally impacts GSM operators like Bharti, Vodafone-Essar, Idea,
and Aircel which have been waiting for spectrum
since December 2006 or have asked for additional spectrum. RCom had applied for spectrum in February 2006 in 15
circles. |
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On the basis of the DoT’s first-come, first-served policy, the decision puts
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani
Group-controlled RCom ahead of the 40-odd players
who have applied for new licences and existing
operators with licence applications for expansion
ahead of the queue for the allocation fo spectrum. |
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GSM and CDMA services
cannot share the same spectrum since they operate on different frequencies which is why CDMA operators need to apply
separately for spectrum for GSM services. |
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The issue of allocating
spectrum — radio frequencies that enable mobile communications — has become
controversial owing to a shortage following delays by the defence
ministry to release spectrum for civilian use. |
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The petition says RCom’s application is invalid as no policy existed at
that time on dual spectrum allocation. The COAI has also criticised
the DoT’s decision to increase the subscriber base
criterion by over 700 per cent for allocation of additional spectrum to
existing players. |
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ost
existing operators from Bharti (except in one cirlce), Vodafone-Essar and
Idea will not get any additional spectrum under the new norms as they have
not reached these new subscriber numbers. |
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The petition points out
that the department’s decision would encourage spectrum to be hoarded by one
set of operators which will compromise competition. |
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It also notes that as a
result of DoT’s decision, one large CDMA operator
(R-Com) will now be entitled to hold four times the quantum of spectrum than
other operators in some service areas (as it will get 4.4 MHz of GSM apart
from what it is entitled in CDMA). |
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The petition reiterates
that dual spectrum is not allowed within the existing licensing policy, and
while the telecom regulator had recommended its consideration, its acceptance
by DoT should have been followed by Cabinet
approval (since it impacts the entire sector). |
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After this, the guidelines
should have been shared by the public at large. COAI also contends that DoT’s decision that spectrum charges should be paid
separately for the two technology streams was clearly aimed at benefitting CDMA operators who would pay a lower rate of
spectrum charges even though they have double the spectrum of a GSM operator.
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Source: Business Standard
New Delhi, October 23
The GSM cellular operators today said the new telecom guidelines, favouring only CDMA service providers, were framed in a
"completely non-transparent manner" and adversely affects existing
GSM players.
In its petition filed in
telecom tribunal TDSAT challenging DoT's revised
guidelines of October 19, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)
demanded that "all files of Telecom Commission relating to revised
guidelines be placed before the tribunal".
On October 19, the
government permitted use of dual technology and also accepted telecom regulator
TRAI's recommendation of enhanced subscriber-linked
criterion for allocation of additional spectrum.
COAI said DoT called for a meeting of Telecom Commission, headed by
telecom secretary, on October 18. The meeting ended at about
COAI said the DoT acted with "undue and unseemly haste" to
benefit one set of operators over the others, denying equal opportunity and
level-playing field to GSM operators.
The main GSM operators
include Bharti Airtel,
Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, while the key CDMA
players are RCoM and Tata Teleservices. Besides RCoM, Mahendra Nahata-promoted HFCL and
Shyam Telecom have received DoT
nod to start GSM services. TTSL has also applied for GSM spectrum. — PTI