Trai’s recent recommendations on spectrum allocation have caused a pitched battle between new and old telecom firms.
While the established telecom firms have all attacked the move, the new telecom firms have welcomed it. Meanwhile, the telecom minister, Mr A. Raja, has said that he will hear out views of all operators before taking any decision on what the regulator has suggested. Trai, meanwhile, has suggested that the loss to the established telecom players will not be as much as they fear.
Vodafone, which is amongst the top telecom operators in India sent out a letter to the telecom minister, which among other things, the letter terms these recommendations as “perverse and retrogade”.
Interestingly, India’s top telecom operator Bharti Airtel had used similar terms to describe what the regulator had proposed. Vodafone has criticised Trai’s proposal to charge a price for excess 2G spectrum that will be dictated by the ongoing 3G auction. “It may be appreciated that the exorbitant 3G prices currently discovered are driven by an artificially created scarcity where only 15-120 MHz out of 60MHz is being auctioned in a market of 12-14 operators,” said the company in its statement.
Some of the newer entrants have meanwhile, come out in support of Trai. Etisalat DB, which had received a telecom licence in 2008 has said that the regulators moves will lead to more efficient use of scarce spectrum. “The earlier subscriber linked criterion was not conducive to achieve spectrum efficiency, although it was achieving the purpose of substantial cost savings for the large players,” the company said in a statement.