'Bharti must welcome entry of RCom'

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Saturday reacted sharply to rival Bharti Airtel's statement that others have equal opportunity to succeed, saying "if Bharti honestly believes in competition, it should welcome entry of RCom and other new players in GSM" segment.

RCom said it wants Bharti and other dominant GSM players to surrender extra spectrum held by them illegally so that new players waiting for a long time could start services.

"Bharti has illegally captured excess spectrum and thereby restricting entry of new players... Bharti, Vodafone and Idea all are holding excess illegal spectrum free of charge," RCom said in a statement.

On the other hand, Bharti had refuted RCom's allegations of hoarding spectrum. A Bharti Airtel statement had yesterday said GSM operators have only 25 MHz of frequency as against RCom's calculation of 50 MHz. The GSM player had also said it welcomed competition and everyone had the right to succeed.

All the operators have presented their views to an official committee to review Telecom Engineering Centre's recommendation and is expected to submit report soon.

TEC had suggested 2-15 times more subscribers to become eligible for additional spectrum while telecom regulator TRAI had recommended up to six times more subscribers.

The GSM operators have also opposed the policy of dual technology for mobile services which has helped RCom to enter the GSM arena.