Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries (RIL) and Union telecom minister Kapil Sibal have rejected the Cellular Operators Association of India’s (COAI) allegations that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had provided ‘undue benefits‘ to the company by allowing the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) having Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum to offer voice services by paying an additional Rs. 1,658 crore.
RJIL, which holds the pan-India 4G licences, said the GSM operators body has “misrepresented facts and misquoted the auction rules with the mala fide intent to mislead people and pressurise government into taking a lenient view on serious licence breaches by its members”.
The telco also dared the the existing operators to “battle with competitors in the open market rather than indulge in disreputable practices”.
Kapil Sibal also lashed out at the COAI, saying, “The decision to allow 4G spectrum winners to offer voice by paying an additional Rs 1,658 crore was based on recommendations of both (sector regulator) Trai and the telecom commission. The regulator said that everyone should be allowed to migrate to a Unified Licence and then offer voice.”
Earlier, the COAI opposed the government decision to allowing the 4G licence holders to offer voice services on the network.
In a letter to R. Chandrashekhar, secretary, DoT, COAI said: “It is first submitted that the BWA spectrum was offered and acquired in 2010 under ISP licence on the basis that it cannot be used for voice services. Any effort to retrospectively review the same to grant an enhancement in the scope of service will be illegal as the conditions of auction are legally binding.”
“It is submitted that what cannot be done directly, cannot be done indirectly, and introduction of unified licence and or payment of Rs. 1,650 crore should not be allowed to be used as a via media to sidestep the explicit condition of auctions and attain a backdoor entry into voice service.”
Source: Economic Times