CHENNAI: The Tatas, one of the leading players in the telecommunications sector, have expressed major reservations on the spectrum allocation policy announced by the government on March 29 and have called for consultations by the government with all constituents of the industry before finalising the allocation of any additional spectrum.

In a recent communication to J. S. Sarma, Secretary to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, has expressed the view that the policy on spectrum allocations as it stands at present is not conducive to "sustainable and equitable growth in the telecom sector for all users'' also would not allow for the full play of technological advances.

Mr. Tata said the DoT's prescription of stand-alone subscriber base levels of GSM and CDMA operators and technology-based spectrum allocations "do not appear to be part of a publicly-defined spectrum policy.'' "I would have thought that the allocation of such a scarce and important resource would have been evolved from a well-documented and detailed Government of India Spectrum Policy, which would provide the road map for spectrum allocation to enable sustainable and equitable growth in the telecom sector for all users,'' he said.

The communication pointed out that the DoT's order sought to allocate spectrum on the basis of individual providers' "self-proclaimed subscriber base, without an established mechanism for verification.'' The order, it said, specified a cut-off level of subscriber size for eligibility for additional spectrum without any recognition being given to the relative years of operation of the respective providers.

"By design or coincidence, the cut-off level singles out one pan-India provider which would be deemed to be ineligible for additional spectrum in the existing frequency band in which it provides services. The order does not address [the issue of] or guarantee additional spectrum when this singled-out provider or any other similarly placed provider crosses the subscriber base threshold, and it would therefore be reasonable to assume that at such time no additional spectrum might be available to these providers, therefore condemning them to a cap on their growth and market share. Surely, this would be discriminatory and would not be in the public interest,'' Mr. Tata observed.

The order, he pointed out, differentiated between GSM and CDMA technologies by allocating only up to 7.5 MHz to CDMA operators against 15 MHZ to GSM operators, "apparently on the ground that this newer technology [CDMA] is more spectrum efficient than the older GSM technology.''

Such an approach of equalizing or protecting a weaker technology, Mr. Tata said, was "irreconcilable" with the needs particularly of a technology-driven industry.

"Let us reflect for a moment as to what would happen in the Information Technology sector if newer computers and operating systems were barred or restricted in usage to `protect` users of older systems. The same analogy would apply to the semiconductor industry if new high capability devices were banned to `protect' equipment users employing older, less capable circuitry. Think of what would happen if airlines flying jet aircraft were forced to fly at reduced speeds and at lower, fuel-guzzling cruising altitudes to `equalise' performance to protect airlines flying slower, turboprop aircraft,'' the Tata communication said.

Mr. Tata pointed out that he had written to the Telecommunications Minister in May 2005 suggesting that spectrum should be available on an all-India basis to providers for a fee and had suggested Rs 1,500 crore for this purpose as this was the proxy price of spectrum paid by operators opting for the UASL regime.

"There need never be a fear that the cost would be passed on to the customer. Customer prices are set by the competitive market and not by costs! If spectrum was charged, the exchequer would also gain substantial additional revenue,'' he said.

Emphasising the need for "stable, long-term policies'' to enable the important sector to grow to its full potential with state-of-the art technologies, Mr. Tata said the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) had also made recommendations to this effect "but these have also not been reflected in the DoT's recent order,'' Mr. Tata added.

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