The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has taken legal action against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for allowing Reliance Communication and other CDMA operators for providing GSM-based cellular services under its subsisting unified access licence.

The case was filed yesterday at the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) that will hear the petition today (Wednesday).

In its appeal, the Cellular Operators Association of India that symbolizes interests of existing GSM players including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, said, “DoT has acted upon its decision with unseemly haste and has, on the basis of some invalid applications made around February 2006 (when such allotments were not permissible and thus such applications were ipso facto and ab initio, illegal and non est), issued an in-principle approval to some CDMA operators. The unseemly haste on the part of DoT is further evidenced by the fact that the in-principle approval has been issued to the CDMA operators even before the licenses were amended in order to make the decision a fait accompli.”

The operators in question include CDMA-technology service suppliers Reliance Communications (RCom), Himachal Futuristic Communication Ltd (HFCL) and Shyam Telelink.

Tata Teleservices has also submitted its request for GSM range across the country, while RCom has applied for CDMA range in arenas where it presently enjoys only GSM based service.

The government had permitted crossover or dual spectrum usage to existing licensees

This means that companies operating CDMA services would be eligible for GSM spectrum on the same licence at Rs 1,680 crore for pan-Indian operations.

In its appeal, COAI said that the DoT rejected the demand of GSM operators, which applied for CDMA range in 1999-2000.

The petition stated, “DoT stated that the operators were technology neutral only within their designated band and further that the CDMA spectrum was earmarked for the fixed service providers.”

GSM operators told the Tribunal that the decision by DoT was illegal since such policy changes need to be ratified by the Cabinet before it is finalised.