COAI slams govt for selling spectrum in dribs and drabs

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents telecom operators on the GSM platform, has termed as "flimsy" the government's reason for not putting up more 3G spectrum for sale in next month's auction.

It said that the Supreme Court's order that the sale will be finalised without the court's approval has added uncertainty to the auction process. "The DoT (department of telecom) chooses to ignore many of the regulator's good recommendations.

''It's not putting up entire spectrum in 2100MHz (3G) band and gave a flimsy explanation," COAI director general Rajan S Mathews said at an ETTelecom forum in New Delhi. COAI represents top GSM operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.

Mathews said due to the scarcity of airwaves, bidding for spectrum in the 2100 MHz and 900 MHz bands will be fierce, which could leave the industry in a worse financial hole than it is already in.

The telecom department is putting up for auction only 5 MHz each of airwaves in the 2100 MHz band across 17 circles, and not the total 20 MHz per service area as was recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and sought by the industry.