Spectrum tangle spreads to DoT committee

The battle for spectrum has now spread among the key members of the committee that was set up by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to suggest new subscriber norms for allocation of additional spectrum.

The COAI representative on the committee, TV Ramachandran, recently wrote a letter to DoT Additional Secretary R Bandhopadhyay, who heads the committee, pointing out that the "terms of reference" clearly stated that it would review the existing criterion, notified in March, 2006, and not the one given by the Telecom Engineering Centre or the regulator Trai.

Trai had recommended doubling to a four-fold increase in the subscriber criterion while the TEC had hiked it further by doubling the subscriber numbers recommendations made by the regulator.