Tata Teleservices has said it has been denied extra spectrum even as the old GSM operators like Bharti, Vodafone and Idea have been allocated excess spectrum in many circles though there isn’t much difference in subscription base of the Tata group company and other three.
In a recent presentation to the government, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has pointed out that old GSM players like Vodafone, Bharti, Idea and Aircel have been allocated 43.8 Mhz of spectrum between 2003 and 2008 for free of cost.
Vodafone on Monday stated that all allocation have been made as per the government’s policy linking with the subscriber base of each operator.
TTSL said that “in many circles, TTSL has been allocated only a maximum of 4.4 MHz of GSM spectrum, whereas other incumbent operators were allocated much higher spectrum, some times more than twice, for a similar subscriber base.”
According to information submitted by TTSL to the telecom ministry, in Tamil Nadu, Bharti holds 8.6 Mhz of spectrum for over 56.17 lakh subscribers, Vodafone holds 7.2 Mhz for 55.52 lkah user base and Aircel has been given 9.8 Mhz for 56.52 lakh subscribers, whereas TTSL has been allocated only 4.4 Mhz for having equal or more (56.5 lakh) users.
Similarly in Mumbai, Bharti and Vodafone have been given 9.2 Mhz and 10.0 Mhz spectrum respectively vis-a-vis only 4.4 Mhz of spectrum to TTSL for similar number of user base.
On the controversial issue of giving licences and bundled 4.4 Mhz of spectrum to new players, TTSL said that Bharti, Vodafone, Idea and Aircel were given 48 licences and over 210 Mhz of spectrum between 2001 and 2008 at 2001 price of Rs. 1,651 crore for pan-India operations.
