Cellular Operators Association of India serves legal notice on Department of Telecom

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has served a legal notice on the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) against granting of GSM spectrum to CDMA operators till the pendency of hearing at the Delhi High Court.

According to CNBC-TV18 analyst Sandeep Gurumurthy, it seems like a last ditch effort by the GSM lobby, COAI to ensure that the government does not go ahead and allot start-up GSM spectrum to Reliance Communications.

On 24 December the Delhi HC had declined to stay the allotment of start-up spectrum to the GSM operators, posting the matter for hearing on 3 January, that's when all the parties would be given an opportunity to present their views before passing an order.

Now, the COAI has served a notice on the DoT asking it to not allot crossover spectrum till such time that the hearing is over.

COAI has said that it had understood from a report filed by CNBC-TV18 that the start-up spectrum was likely to be allotted to Reliance Communications over the next couple of days and asked DoT to refrain from doing so till the matter had been heard by the court.

CNBC-TV18 says that despite the notice, the government is not likely to take the notice from COAI seriously. IT cited government unnamed sources in the government who seemed to be of the view that since the Delhi high court had declined to stay the matter, DoT could technically go ahead and allot spectrum to Reliance Communications.

Whether, DoT does go ahead with the allocation as reported, Gurumurthy  was of the view that Reliance Communications was likely to get spectrum over the next couple of days, CNBC reported.