COAI walks out of telecom regulator’s open house

According to a COAI statement :‘‘We have been repeatedly denied this opportunity of presenting our views before the authority for which we have flown in several international experts. We believe that the dangers and pitfalls of US PCS band should be discussed in an open forum and our views be heard by all stakeholders. But TRAI has instead asked us to make a separate presentation.’’ ‘‘As the regulator did not discuss this important matter in an open forum, we were constrained to withdraw from the open house proceedings today,’’ Ramchandran said, adding COAI would meet TRAI separately. He cited TRAI Act which says ‘‘the authority shall ensure transparency while exercising its powers and discharging its functions.’’ Operators have applied for 3G spectrum, he said, adding 3G spectrum, is for GSM and CDMA and both can co-exist.

TRAI member D P S Seth defended the Authority’s decision of not allowing coai open presentation as ‘‘it required 2-3 hours of discussion.’’ Association of Unified Service Providers of India, secretary, S C Khanna, said ‘‘we don’t have equipment on 1800 MHz band. We have been given 800 and 1800 MHz and the instrument which works on 800 MHz would not be able work on 1800 MHz, and will only work on 1900 MHz.”