NGO moves HC against DoT on excess spectrum

Adding to the woes of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Telecom Watchdog, a Delhi-based NGO, has filed a petition to the Delhi High Court on the issue of allocation of excess spectrum to telcos.

Telecom Watchdog has alleged that DoT has been distributing spectrum much beyond the entitlement to the private operators and that too without any extra fee. The NGO has named Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Reliance Communications, Spice Communications and BPL Mobiles as the beneficiaries.

The petitioner has therefore asked for an increase in the spectrum charges for excess spectrum. It has also urged the court to direct DoT to implement the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) norms. According to the TEC norms, the basis for allocation of additional spectrum should be the subscriber base.

This comes close on the heels of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed in the High Court against the first-come-first-serve policy followed by the government in allocating spectrum.