The Government today said it will not allocate any spectrum to existing operators, licence holders and new applicants till a scientific evaluation is done by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC). “ We have referred the matter to the Law Ministry to get the Solicitor General’s views on the matter,” said Union communications and IT minister A Raja, referring to the fate of over 575 applications for new licences.On allegations levelled by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) that the Department of Telecom (DoT) has shown haste in deciding the new guidelines announced last week, Raja said, “Having received the recommendations from Trai, the matter was referred to Telecom Commission.”“The Telecom Commission accepted Trai’s recommendations on use of two technologies under the same licence while on the issue of enhanced subscriber linked criteria, the matter was referred to the TEC for further evaluation,” Raja said, adding that there was no case for any hasty decision or favouring of any one operator as alleged by the existing operators.The Government, through its counsel, has also assured TDSAT that no spectrum would be given to any player till November 12, the next date of hearing on a petition filed by COAI against the new norms. COAI, an association of GSM operators, on Tuesday challenged the Government’s decision to allow dual technology by a single operator and enhance subscriber base for allocation of additional spectrum.DoT appears to have taken a decision on enhanced subscriber-based criterion after Trai observed that existing operators with the given amount of spectrum can serve more subscribers, as is done in developed countries. But the Ministry preferred to have it evaluated by TEC before making any allocation.
