COAI seeks equal opportunity for members in BSNL pacts

GSM-based telecom companies' lobby COAI has sought equal opportunity for its members to participate and enter into spectrum sharing and trading as well as intra-circle roaming arrangements with state-run BSNL.
In separate letters to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and BSNL CMD Anupam Srivastava, COAI said that BSNL is considering entering into intra-circle roaming (ICR), spectrum sharing and trading arrangements with other licenced service providers in order to enhance coverage.
"In fact we are made to understand that a commercial offer for ICR is being made to a particular operator and an arrangement may be imminent," the letter said.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), though did not mention the name of the operator.

"We request that our member operators should be given equal opportunity to participate and enter into such arrangements with BSNL so as to conform to the equality principle contained in Article 14 of the Constitution of India and also to meet the doctrine of level playing field," the letter said.
The core members of COAI include Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Uninor, Aircel and Videocon Telecom.