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Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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Spectrum: PM’s intervention sought

Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI: After the warring telecom companies, it is now the political parties that have sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention in resolving the spectrum allocation row.

Apart from Telugu Desam Party chief and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, the Shiv Sena has written to Dr. Singh seeking an end to the impasse on the issue.

Last week, Mr. Naidu and the Sena leaders in Parliament, Anant Geete and Manohar Joshi, wrote to the Prime Minister.

Mr. Naidu asked Dr. Singh to ensure that justice was done to existing service providers as well as prospective participants. “It is important that India’s telecom sector is not derailed by some skewed policies,” he wrote to Dr. Singh.

On the other hand, the Shiv Sena favoured the auction of precious spectrum so that a good amount of money could be added to the exchequer. “By the method of auction, the exchequer may earn Rs.40,000 crore or even more. This amount will go a long way to implement schemes for poverty alleviation and public services, including infrastructure,” its leaders wrote.

The matter also remained alive in both the Houses of Parliament last week, thanks to the repeated intervention of the Opposition parties, particularly the Samajwadi Party, whose MPs accused the leading GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) service providers of hoarding air waves and blocking entry of other players. Communist Party of India-Marxist MP Sitaram Yechury asked the government to safeguard the interests of State-run telecom companies – Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited – while allocating spectrum.

Demanding a CBI inquiry, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh alleged: “Some GSM operators who earlier got the spectrum free of cost are now hoarding it, while those who want to launch their operations are awaiting spectrum allocation for which they will have to pay crores of rupees to the Government. These private GSM players have hoarded more than 50 MHz of airwaves as they have been allotted more than their contracted quantity of 6.2 MHz spectrum.”

The Congress favoured the distribution of spectrum in a transparent manner. Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed, who is also the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, said the Government was actively discussing the matter with all stakeholders and soon a final decision would be taken.

While GSM leaders Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Essar are unhappy over the increased subscriber norm for getting more spectrum, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) majors Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, who are waiting to enter the GSM space, want the government to either give them spectrum along with licence as offered to their predecessors or go in for auction.

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