Auspi hails Trai proposals on spectrum allocation

The Association of Unified Service Providers of India (Auspi), the CDMA operators’ lobby, today hailed telecom regulator Trai for its “balanced, progressive and transparent” proposals on spectrum allocation.

“The Trai recommendations are pro-consumer and will help bridge the digital divide by linking spectrum allocation with rollout obligations... These are well balanced, progressive and transparent,” Auspi said in a statement. The recommendations were unlike the past instances of spectrum allocations over legal entitlement to incumbent service providers, it added.

GSM players, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, have opposed the Trai recommendations and termed them as retrograde and perverse. They even said that the report should be dumped.

While no association or operator has got all issues from their wish-list accepted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the regulator had accepted far more of the wish-list of incumbent GSM operators than CDMA members, it said.

“Yet, vicious and unprecedented attack continues. This has never happened in the sector before and against an independent regulator in any sector, anywhere in the world,” Auspi added.

Trai has recommended that 2G spectrum beyond the contracted limit of 6.2 MHz need to be priced in relation to the 3G spectrum, for which the auction is in process.