GSM lobby blames DoT, Trai for favouring ISP licence holders

The GSM operators has blamed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for delaying the amendment in ISP licence agreement as the delay would inappropriately favour certain operators i.e. internet service providers (ISP) licence holders, creating an uneven playing ground to the loss of the others.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), in a recent communication to the DoT, has said that DoT and Trai are yet to finalise the amendments even after more than 27 months since the auctions of BWA spectrum. With Trai’s recommendations dated November 22, 2012, the ISP licence holders will enjoy more than 27 months extra in their licence terms of BWA spectrum as compared to their other peers who have bought 3G/BWA spectrum in auction in September 2010.

This would increase the loss of the government’s earning as the effective date of licences get extended and they have already used the valuable spectrum free of cost for more than 27 months from auction results, COAI said in its communication to the DoT.

According to norms, the DoT is supposed to issue the Letter of Intent (LoI) allocating the spectrum to the successful bidder and necessary amendments within 15 days of the DoT receiving an application for such amendments. However, the 15 days period was applicable for all successful bidders except the ISPs.

Trai, in its consultation paper, said that the date of LoI assigning spectrum to ISP holders will be the effective date and ISP licence holders can use spectrum without requiring amendment in the licence.

According to COAI, this would be highly discriminatory for the industry if Trai recommendation means that the effective date is not immediately after the auction which was conducted in September 2010.