"COAI and the GSM industry have always welcomed and would continue to welcome open and healthy competition on level playing field terms as a free and fair play of market forces was beneficial for both the consumer as well as the industry," COAI director general T V Ramachandran said in a statement.
Clarifying its position on the matter of its reported demand of restricting entry of operators per circle, he said: "It was TRAI's view...unrestricted entry of access providers will put pressure on spectrum in a significant manner."
In a letter to the Department of Telecom, the association pointed out that concern of the industry was not on account of extent of competition, but because of the limited availability of spectrum.
Both the policy and regulation mandate that once a licence has been granted to offer wireless services, the licencee must be assured of adequate and optimal bandwidth to maintain proper and necessary quality of service standards, it said.