Vodafone India files petition with TDSAT against DoT on the issue of spectrum liberalisation
Vodafone India has moved Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on the issue of spectrum liberalisation.
The move follows the release of a set of guidelines by DoT for the forthcoming spectrum auction. Amongst several other directives, the guidelines specify liberalisation of spectrum. This essentially means the removal of technology restrictions, thereby enabling operators to deploy different technologies on any given spectrum.
Vodafone India in its petition states that spectrum has been in-principle liberalised since 1999 with the launch of National Telecom Policy. And ever since both DoT and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have acknowledged the same. The operator has called DoT?s move to ask existing companies to pay a licence fee to obtain liberalised spectrum, a violation of contractual and legal rights of existing operators.
According to Vodafone India TRAI has a contradictory position on the issue of spectrum liberalisation. On the one hand it acknowledges the existence of policy of technology and service neutrality license and on the other hand it debates the whether any restrictions should be put on spectrum usage.
