Aircel pulls out of COAI petition against DoT

NEW DELHI, INDIA: In a major setback to the GSM lobby, Aircel today withdrew from the COAI petition challenging the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on the new licensing policies and spectrum allocation.

The GSM operators, through COAI had jointly filed a petition in TDSAT against the government’s decision permitting dual technology for operators on a single license and subscriber based allocation of spectrum.

A day after the government accepted the Telecom Engineering Center’s report on the new guidelines on allocation of spectrum, GSM operator Aircel withdrew its petition.

When contacted Aircel official confirmed that the operator has withdrawn the case, but denied divulging the reason for it.

According to industry sources, the government has accepted the TEC report which has recommended more than eight times increase in subscriber base for GSM operators to become eligible for additional spectrum. The GSM operators have been crying foul over the new spectrum allocation policy report submitted by TEC.