New telecom licence: COAI's demands

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) - the lobby for service providers using GSM technology - has suggested that the government, in allocating telecom licence, consider applicants with experience and impose a five-year lock-in period under which promoters cannot sell their equity.

The department of telecom (DoT) has received nearly 300 applications for universal access service licence (UASL), the deadline for which expired on October 1.

The association has also demanded that all allocation of spectrum for new circles and existing ones should be made transparently on a first-come first-served basis.

In its 30-slide presentation to Communications Minister A Raja, COAI demanded that incumbent GSM operators whose licence applications have been pending since December 2006 must be given priority for licence and initial spectrum issues.

The proposal will benefit telecom operators like Spice Telecom (which has applied for licence in 20 circles) and Idea Cellular (which has applied for licences in nine circles), whose applications have been pending since December 2006.

It will also benefit Aircel, Vodafone Essar and Bharti Airtel, which have been waiting for spectrum for years.

The meeting, which was called by Raja to hear out the telecom operators, was attended by Sunil Mittal, Bharti group chairman; Asim Ghosh, Vodafone-Essar Ltd CEO; Manoj Kohli, Bharti Airtel president; BK Modi, Spice Telecom promoter; Sanjeev Aga, Idea Cellular chief; and representatives of Reliance, COAI and the Association of United Telecom Service Providers - the CDMA-technology association.

COAI has also recommended that the cross-holding restriction, under which one company cannot take more than 10 per cent in another company in the same service area, should be rigorously enforced.

Strongly attacking the recent deluge of applications COAI pointed out that interest from non-telecom companies appears to be driven only by financial speculation as a result of the flawed recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India which has created an impression of abundant spectrum availability.

GSM operators pointed out that they did not rule out the prospect of spectrum-grabbing and subsequent sale at profit to foreign telcos.

However, AUSPI has opposed the presentation saying that it would require time to prepare a rejoinder to the government.