BSNL , MTNL Hit Back
BSNL and MTNL hit back at Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal who had quest= ioned the government’s move to allocate additional spectrum to the PSUs, de= scribed them as being inefficient and had asked the government to withdraw = the additional radio frequencies allocated to them.=20
BSNL’s chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal told reporters = that the company was entitled to the spectrum it had been awarded, while ad= ding that Mr Mittal’s comments that the PSU was using spectrum inefficientl= y were baseless. Mr Goyal also said that with the government permitting dua= l technology, BSNL was examining the possibility of offering full-fledged C= DMA services. “We will set up about 10,000 wireless towers for the CDMA net= work within a year if we decide to go in for full-fledged CDMA services,” M= r Goyal said. He also ruled out any surrender of 2G spectrum as demanded by= Mr Mittal.=20
MTNL, on its part defended the government’s move to award it specia= l treatment with regard to spectrum allocation. The company said that since= it was a late entrant in the mobile space, it was always at a disadvantage= ous position vis-=E0-vis its competitors. The company said that it was give= n GSM spectrum in two different bands unlike private players and this put g= reat constraint on frequency planning and network quality. It also added th= at this had resulted in increased capex and opex and had adversely affected= the profitability to MTNL. The PSU, which offers services in Mumbai and Ne= w Delhi also said that it was on account of the litigation brought about by= private operators that it was forced to enter the mobile segment late.=20
Private GSM players have been at loggerheads with the government’s = over its recent move to recent move to give additional spectrum to BSNL whi= ch took the PSU’s total allocation to 10 MHz in all major telecom circles e= ven as they (private players) had been waiting for radio frequencies since = December 2006.=20
When it was pointed out that the DoT had given spectrum to the PSUs= as per the earlier allocation criteria, even as private operators were ask= ed to wait for the new policy, Mr Goyal said that he could not comment on t= he issue. “We are a state-owned company, so it is the government’s prerogat= ive to grant us spectrum,” he said.=20
On Thursday, Mr Mittal in his communication to the DoT had said tha= t there was no logic why BSNL and MTNL, which have significantly lower cust= omers than Airtel, were given spectrum generously even when they have not f= ulfilled the subscriber base criteria as prescribed in the current policy.= =20
MTNL in its reply has also added that special treatment was essenti= al for it was essential from national security point as the PSU catered to = the communications needs of India’s defence forces.
Source: Economic= Times
