Sunday, Feb 23, 2003
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By Our Special Correspondent
Meanwhile, a meeting between the cellular and WiLL(M) companies, which ended late on Friday, remained inconclusive. The committee, formed on the suggestion of the Communications Minister, Arun Shourie, will meet again on March 3. It is an indication of the intractability of the dispute that Mr. Shourie's hopes of making "practical people" sit across the table and resolve it by March 1 have been belied. However, the operators now realise that the ball is in their court and they have a moral responsibility to arrive at some sort of a solution when they meet in Mumbai. The Reliance chairman, Mukesh Ambani, also expressed sentiments to this effect. However, the DoT Secretary, Vinod Vaish, might not be present at the Mumbai meeting. As a result of the inconclusive meeting, the industry may not look forward to the next hearing of the Telecom Dispute Tribunal, scheduled next week, with interest. The Tribunal is hearing a petition by cellular companies against providing any mobility, limited or full, to WiLL(M) companies. The case was referred back to the Tribunal by the Supreme Court, which asked it to adjudicate on a number of points. Cellular companies may seek an adjournment till the next meeting of the Shourie panel. The TRAI's observation on more cellular companies does not mean that they will be inducted straightaway. As the TRAI has said, "What is of utmost importance is that adequate quality of service is ensured." It has further qualified the statement by pointing out that spectrum appears to be a problem even for the existing companies. In this respect, it has said, "it is seen that existing cellular operators in India have much less spectrum allocation in comparison to their counterparts in other countries. This imposes a needless constraint on them in respect to both QoS (quality of service) and optimal network engineering." Therefore, the Government will first have to vacate frequencies currently occupied by its agencies, mainly defence and security organisations, to satisfy the demand for more spectrum by existing operators as well as to ensure that provision is also made for new companies. The problem of spectrum squatting has remained unresolved for several years because of the huge sums involved in reengineering the equipment being operated by government agencies to other frequencies. But the recommendation does come at an awkward time for the sector at a time when cellular companies are locked in a bitter fight with WiLL(M) companies.
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