The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has not taken any steps to determine the rollout obligations of dual technology players, despite the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) giving its recommendations in July 2011.
In this context, therefore, the regulator has asked DoT to expedite the process.
Prior to this, DoT?s licensing wing had said that dual-technology players will have to fulfill rollout norms for GSM and CDMA spectrum independently.
Currently, such players showcase their network rollout as a single entity for both technologies. In this context, in 2008, TRAI, in a written correspondence to DoT had said that since spectrum was being given separately for both technologies, the rollout should also be applicable independently.
At that time, dual-technology players had argued against the proposal on grounds that since both technologies were permitted under a single licence, the existing rollout obligations should also be applicable on their combined network.
Meanwhile, the Telecom Commission had accepted this and did not impose separate rollout conditions.
However, TRAI has asked DoT to rethink the policy and ask the operators to show rollouts separately.
