Sunil Mittal joins letter-war over spectrum

A third telecom chief leaped into the ongoing spectrum letter-war that has CEOs cautioning the government against rival factions. On Monday, Sunil Bharti Mittal, CMD of the biggest GSM services company Bharti Enterprises, addressed PM Manmohan Singh.

His letter says there is an urgent need for more spectrum and for the tax burden to reduce. It also says that GSM drives growth in teledensity and ‘‘protects customer interest by ensuring inter-operability across technologies.’’

Previous letters, sent by Tata Group’s Ratan Tata and Asim Ghosh, the CEO of Hutch, had indulged freely in lambasting the CDMA and GSM wings of industry over who gets more spectrum. This letter from Mittal, instead, points out that the GSM Association (GSMA) Board will be in India next month that will find ‘‘ways and means to connect the unconnected.’’

‘‘India is showing the way,’’ Mittal has said, optimistically.