No peace formula from DoT over spectrum says Mittal

New Delhi, Dec 3: Bharti Airtel Chief Sunil Mittal today said the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has come out with no peace formula in a bid to end the stalemate over spectrum issue.

''The DoT Secretary has come out with no peace formula on spectrum issue,'' Mr Mittal told reporters here.

He said the government has been apprised of the problems pertaining to the spectrum issue.

Leading GSM operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are understood to have met DoT Secretary D S Mathur today to resolve the spectrum deadlock.

The meeting came even as an official committee, which is reviewing the DoT's technical wing Telecom Engineering Center's (TEC) recommendations on spectrum allocation norms, is yet to submit its final report.

The TEC had recommended a hike between 2-15 times in the subscriber base, which is virtually double what TRAI had recommended for allocation of spectrum to mobile operators.

GSM lobby Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and CDMA body Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) have been at loggerheads ever since the DoT proposed the new norms for allocating additional radio waves.

While GSM players such as Bharti Airtel have opposed the new norms, CDMA firms like Reliance Communications are demanding surrender of excess spectrum from existing GSM companies.

UNI