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GSM Operators’ Lobby to take TRAI to Court
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Apparently, there’s trouble brewing in India’s telecom sector as the leading GSM operators in the country plan to take the country’s telecom regulator TRAI to court. And as it seems, it is only about to get worse.
The Anil Ambani led Reliance Communications (RCOM) secured a license to offer GSM services quite some time back. RCOM has been providing telecommunication services to millions of subscribers in India using the CDMA technology. However, the company also provides services using the GSM technology in a select few circles in the country. According to the company, it was granted license to provide services using both the services at the same time.
India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had instructed the other GSM operators in the country - Bharti Airtel, BPL, Vodafone, Idea and state-owned BSNL to provide link to RCOM’s GSM services back in July. The regulator fixed August 21st, 2008 as the last date to provide the inter-link. According to TRAI’s policy, every GSM service provider, who holds a license to provide its services has to provide inter-linking with other operators.
Now, although the state-owned BSNL is not voicing its opinion, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, BPL, Idea etc which collectively form the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) claim that since Reliance’s GSM services is practically under a new network, it must require re-negotiations of the mutual agreements. The operators claim that the any mutual agreements that exist currently are only for its CDMA networks.
TRAI has issued a second ultimatum to COAI, citing August 21st as the last date. Now, the COAI are planning to move sectoral tribunal (TDSAT) on this issue. Officials from COAI told TOI that they were readying the necessary documents required for the move and would be filing the same by tomorrow.
Thus, here we have 3 different, each with its own set of views and claims about the issue. RCOM claims that as per the license issued to it, it is allowed to offer both GSM and CDMA services in the country. Although TRAI is mum on RCOM’s claim, it maintains that the COAI is required to provide inter-link, failing which would be against the licensing agreements they agreed upon. COAI on the other hand claims that re-negotiations should take place since RCOM’s GSM services require a new network and hence should be considered a new service.
It would be interesting to see who bows down to whose demands and whether TRAI handles the situation well.
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