Ambani opens fire on GSM cos, writes to PM

New Delhi: Reliance ADAG chairman Anil Ambani has taken his grouse over spectrum and has written letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Ambani has accused GSM operators of hoarding surplus spectrum.

He has sought Prime Minister's intervention to ensure that service providers like Vodafone and Bharti Airtel surrender the excess airwaves.

In an attack on GSM players, who are demanding auctioning of spectrum and have moved telecom tribunal TDSAT on new spectrum norms, Ambani said even sector regulator TRAI, fair trade practices watchdog MRTPC as also TDSAT have issued notices to Bharti and Vodafone for "anti-consumer practices".

“It is essential that the future of telecom industry is not undermined by a few vested interest for their narrow personal interests," PTI quoted Ambani’s letter written to Singh days before the Diwali festival.

The letter comes after GSM lobby Cellular Operators Association of India challenged the new policy of allowing dual technology for mobile telephony and new spectrum allocation norms as recommended by Telecom Engineering Centre. ADAG firm Reliance Communications is a key CDMA player and was the first one to apply for GSM spectrum under the new norms.

Ambani has asked the government to "see through the motivated agenda of a few existing GSM operators and not succumb to their pressure tactics", and said there should be "a transparent framework for surrender of spectrum in a time-bound manner, wherever not utilised, as per guidelines".

"A few large existing GSM players have in fact unjustifiably taken away precious and scarce spectrum in the past free of cost, far in excess of their actual requirements and far in excess of the 6.2 MHz they were entitled to under their licenses," PTI quoted Ambani as saying.

The extra and free spectrum to existing players has enabled them to enjoy savings in capital expenditure at an estimated over Rs 20,000 crore. It also enabled them to generate abnormal profits for themselves and deprive the government of revenues in direct and indirect taxes, he said.