The simmering tension over spectrum allocation among Indian telecom companies has erupted into a public spat with warring mobile phone operators leaving no stone unturned in their battle to acquire more air waves.
The fight is so intense that Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin too jumped in, dashing off letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and communications minister A Raja, complaining against the stiffer spectrum allocation norms proposed by the Telecommunication Engineering Centre, an arm of the department of telecommunications.
Reliance Communications chief Anil Ambani, whose company uses CDMA technology, too wrote to the Prime Minister. He accused some “large GSM players”, a reference to Vodafone and Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Telecom, of spreading “misleading and false propaganda” to block fresh competition in telecom, hoard spectrum and indulge in “anti-consumer practices like cartelisation”.
Read the full story in ‘The Times of India’
Other related stories:
Anil Ambani takes telecom rivals to PM – Hindustan Times
Telcos sweat under spectrum deadlock – Business Standard
Telecom tussle engulfs all major players, Ambani writes to PM – The Indian Express quoating PTI
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Times of India
‘Spectrum to be allotted in a month’
12 Nov 2007, 1423 hrs IST,PTI
CHENNAI: The Telecom spectrum will be allotted to various applicants within a month, Union Minister of State for Communication and IT, Shakeel Ahmed said on Monday.
“It (spectrum) will be allotted within a month or so,” he told reporters when asked about it after a prize distribution ceremony at BSNL.
On various charges being reportedly levelled by two telecom majors, Bharti and Reliance over Spectrum allocation, he said, “The government is technology neutral. We will take a proper decision.”
He also said that the spectrum from Defence will be allotted to telecom players when Defence vacates it. “After all, national security is of primary importance,” he added.
Earlier, speaking at the function, he said the Indian telecom industry has now overtaken China and become the fastest growing in the world with the lowest tariffs in the whole world.