Spectrum WAR

The war is not yet over. Cellular Mobile Operators Association of India(COAI) is in combat mode with Tata, over the oppositision of the allocation of additional spectrum based services on subscriber growth bt Ratan Tata.
The apex body representing the GSM operators, COAI has said that that Tatas had the same level playing field to add more subscribers when the government converted the licence into a Universal Access Service Licence(UASL).
T.V Ramachandran, Director General COAI, said, "It is an absurd allegation that operators are fudging their subscriber figures. Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd, Bharti Televentrues Ltd, and Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd are listed companies. Can they afford to fudge?
Further, they also report to Department of Telecommunication(DoT) on a quaterly basis about subsciber numbers as a part of their licence obligation."
Ramachandran also Ramchandran further added that if the subscribers figures were fudged, then then the revenue growth would have exposed it.
The operators were toiling to get revenue by investing in additional infrastructure, and RCVL and BTVL had invested heavily in their infrastructure expansion since USAL licence was given to them, he said.
"With falling tariffs and lower average revenue per user(ARPU), there is no reason in no reason for them to fudge subscriber figures. Tatas had the same opportunity as others to ramp up their subscriber base and infrastructure.
They had the same spectrum as others that was allotted by government," said Ramachandran.
Ramachandran said that government's spectrum allotment criterion was not discriminatory as it laid down a clear and transparent roadmap based on which operators were eligible for additional spectrum once they reached a pre-defined subscriber milestone.
Ramachandran said that this criteria was finalised by a Techniacal Committee after Telecom Engineering Centre had conducted an in-depth study for seven months on utilisation of bandwidth by operators, the network design, the traffic handing capacity in different areas.