Vodafone objects to 'liberalisation' clause in DoT guidelines

There is no difference between the 'liberalisation' agenda that the DoT has now announced and what is already permitted under policy and licence, including the previous telecom policy, Vodafone said today.

There is no difference between the 'liberalisation' agenda that the DoT has now announced and what is already permitted under policy and licence, including the previous telecom policy, Vodafone said on Monday.

"Technology neutrality is enshrined in our licences and there is simply no justification to require us to pay an auction-discovered price for the permission to do what we are already entitled to," Vodafone India's resident director TV Ramachandran said in a statement.

DoT in the guidelines for auction of spectrum has said that service providers may be allowed to convert their existing 1800 MHz spectrum (used for 2G services) to liberalised spectrum for a period of 20 years on payment of the auction-determined price.

In India, 2G GSM services are being provided using airwaves frequencies in 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz band and CDMA services using 800 Mhz band.

DoT guidelines were issued following recommendations from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which said that spectrum that is purchased through auction should be liberalised which will allow to use any technology for providing wireless service using airwaves allocated to them.

Ramachandran further said the industry had already written to the Empowered Group of Ministers through COAI, seeking that this anomaly be corrected immediately.