GSM operators wanted level playing field: COAI DG on rift with RJIL

RJIL and COAI were at loggerheads with each other but joined hands on Monday with Reliance Industries' telecom arm becoming core member of the GSM industry body

Welcoming the move of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) to join hands with Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), COAI director general Rajan Mathews on Wednesday said that all they had wanted was ‘a level playing field’ for GSM telecom operators. RJIL and COAI were at loggerheads with each other but joined hands on Monday with the Reliance Industries’ telecom arm becoming a core member of the GSM industry body.

“All we had sought was a level playing field for GSM telecom operators. We had asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to levy the same  charges on all operators,” said Mathews, who was in city to interact with media on ‘Mobile networks and public health’.

The COAI represents GSM telecom operators such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Uninor among others. COAI members jointly have about 68 per cent of subscribers and around 71 per cent of revenue share in the market. In the past, COAI had taken a stand against RJIL on various issues.

When DoT had issued unified licence to RJIL against payment of about Rs 1,673 crore in 2013, COAI had vehemently opposed it alleging that with unified licence, RJIL can offer full-fledged mobile services and that the licence was given at a cheap price. Earlier, RJIL had held licence only for internet services.

In India, internet service providers (ISP) were not allowed to provide Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) services.

However, in February 2013, this decision was reversed when an inter-ministerial body Telecom Commission approved a recommendation allowing companies having ISP licences and holding 4G spectrum to offer phone calls services by paying a fee of Rs 1,658 crore each. The Commission's decision was green signalled by the Union telecom ministry.

At that time, COAI had alleged that the telecom department was trying to give "undue benefits" to Reliance Industries by allowing companies having ISP licences to offer voice calls by paying 'a small fee' of Rs 1,658 crore.