Tata, Bharti, COAI meet DoT Secy

Amid the ongoing debate over the entry of foreign players for offering 3G mobile services and opposition to this idea by domestic players, officials of Tata Teleservices, Bharti Airtel and the Cellular Operators Association of India today met telecom secretary D S Mathur.

"No comments," Tata Teleservices director Mukund Govind Rajan said when asked whether this issue was raised with Mathur in their meeting. COAI director general T V Ramachandran and Bharti Airtel chief Sunil Mittal said the issue was not discussed.

When contacted, a DoT official said, "Our policy on 3G will be based on Trai recommendations." Trai has not recommended allowing foreign players in 3G.

Sunil Mittal, Chief Managing Director, Bharti group said: "My only point is existing players should get enough spectrum. We all know there is scarcity of 2G (voice spectrum)."

Former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran had said foreign players should be considered to offer 3G services to bring in quality and competition.

However, domestic players have opposed this proposal. Tata Teleservices has already written to Mathur, asking for a level playing field to existing players vis-a-vis new and global players and had sought a hearing on its concerns.

"The interests of existing telecom licence holders who have done so much to make India the fastest telecom market in the world must be protected and a level-playing field provided to them," Tata Teleservices had said earlier.

The company said the logical policy should be to allow the entry of 2G companies into 3G to develop their markets and grow by getting more spectrum and by using their existing infrastructure.

COAI, which represents GSM service providers, has already written to the government that existing players should be given first right of use over 3G spectrum in view of the scarcity of spectrum for them.

The association said that Trai had also recommended that existing domestic players should be given priority for allocating spectrum.