Tata Tele, RCom in war of words over dual licences

The Tata Group and the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group seem to be on a perpetual cold war footing. The latest spat between them concerns the award of dual technology for telecom services.

Tata Teleservices Ltd said Monday it was unfair and incorrect to compare the company with dual technology operators like Reliance Communications (RCom) and others as the latter had applied and received approval even before the policy on dual licences came into effect.

TTSL's statement came in response to RCom's claim that it had to wait for more than 18 months after February 2006 to get the dual technology (GSM and CDMA) licence, while TTSL got it promptly.

RCom had said on Sunday that its application was "on identical terms and payment of identical fees as the three other companies - Ratan Tata group's Tata Teleservices, Himachal Futuristic Communications and Shyam Telecom (now known as Sistema) - and there is nothing special or untoward in the same."

TTSL, however, said that it "…was the only operator amongst those named above to apply for dual-technology licence after the 19 October 2007 policy announcement by the department of telecommunications (DoT) and it is hence unfair and incorrect to compare TTSL with the other applicants, who had applied before the policy was announced."

It added, "It is indeed special and intriguing that RCom and two other operators applied and got DoT approval even before the policy was announced."