Old GSM firms gained most, say Tatas, RCom

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 is not much difference in the subscription base of the Tata Group company and other three.

In a recent presentation to the government, Tata Teleservices have 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 lakh 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.

RCom supports Tatas

As if taking a cue from Ratan Tata, Anil Ambani-led RCom too on Monday alleged that old GSM telecom operators took away excess 2G airwaves without paying for it.

In a statement, RCom said that it "supports Tatas" charge on spectrum hoarding by old GSM operators.

Ratan Tata, in a recent interview to a private channel, had said the government must deal with "people who have excess spectrum. They should pay for it or return it. They have deprived others of that spectrum."

Tata did not specify the operators that were allegedly allotted excess spectrum beyond the contractual limit.

"Old GSM operators took 2G spectrum totally free as recently as May, 2008, to March, 2009. They (old GSM operators) did not even pay for excess spectrum at old rates," the RCom statement said, adding that RCom and the Tatas have consistently raised this issue with the Department of Telecom.

Tata had said that "other people have got it, other people are holding spectrum for free. So there are inequalities and inequities in telecom area which still need to be solved."

RCom was one of the major beneficiaries of the dual technology policy under which CDMA players were allotted 2G spectrum by former Telecom Minister A Raja in 2008 at 2001 prices, which snowballed into a major controversy.

Both RCom and the Tatas were pan-India CDMA players and were given GSM spectrum as per the dual technology policy. The Tatas, however, have been maintaining that they have been deprived of spectrum in the crucial Delhi circle and many other places, even though they should have had priority over RCom in the allocation of spectrum.