Indian GSM operators to appeal spectrum ruling

Indian mobile phone operators are planning to file suit in the Delhi High Court on Saturday to appeal against a telecom tribunal order that they say gives an advantage to competitors using a different technology.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) order paves the way for the government to allocate new spectrum to operators of CDMA (code-division multiple access) networks who also want to offer GSM services in the country, and to operators setting up services in new areas.

GSM operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Spice Telecom and Idea Cellular plan to file a petition against the order on Saturday, as Friday is a holiday in India because of a Muslim festival.

These GSM operators received a major setback when the TDSAT made an interim order refusing to stay the process of allocating spectrum to the new applicants.

The government has said that it aims to increase competition in the mobile services market to bring down tariffs.

The operators were not immediately available for comment, but a source close to the GSM operators said on Friday that the GSM operators are objecting to the government allocating spectrum to new operators at a time when the GSM operators are starved for spectrum and have been demanding more. The CDMA operators planning to offer GSM services are effectively new licensees and can't take precedence over existing licensees, she said.

The average spectrum allocated to each operator is about 7MHz to 8MHz, which is inadequate for the companies to expand their services and improve quality of service, the source said. Under a policy announced last year that links the allocation of additional spectrum to the number of subscribers, a number of GSM operators are already entitled to additional spectrum, she added.

Instead of meeting the licensing conditions of existing GSM operators, the government instead intends to address the requirement of CDMA operators, some of whom have under-utilized spectrum allocated to them for their CDMA operation, the source said.

The GSM operators are worried that the government is modifying its policies to suit a top CDMA operator, Reliance Communications, which has announced plans to offer GSM services.

A decision by the government in November to introduce subscriber number portability across mobile operators was introduced to help Reliance "poach on subscribers of existing GSM players," Cellular Operators' Association of India, an association of GSM service providers, hinted after the decision was announced.

The COAI later clarified that it was not opposed to number portability, but wanted it to be introduced across the country at one go, rather than in a phased manner, starting with four metro cities. It also proposed that the government and the telecom regulator should also order CDMA operators to "unlock" CDMA phones.

The dispute between the CDMA operators and GSM operators promises to be long and bitter, particularly as both sides have companies that belong to India's top industrial groups, and wield considerable influence in the country's corridors of power.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.