Dissatisfied companies can approach court: Raja on spectrum LoIs

New Delhi, Jan 14 (UNI) The government today took a firm stance on the allocation of Letters of Intents (LoIs) for spectrum allocation saying that the companies which were dissatisfied can take recourse to legal means.

''If the companies are not satisfied, they are at liberty to go to the court,'' Telecom Minister A Raja told reporters here.

Aditya Birla-led Idea Cellular Ltd had on January 11 urged the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) not to issue any licence or spectrum to any applicant before processing its file.

Idea has received LoIs for Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Karnataka, Punjab, Orissa, West Bengal, Kolkata, Assam, North East, and J&K circles.

''We were prevented from making the payment purely because the government did not accept it,'' Idea Cellular Managing Director Sanjeev Aga said in a letter to DoT secretary Siddhartha Behura.

The company was ready with its finances since mid-2006 and had asked the government to accept the payment along with guarantees, he added.

He said the process of intimating about the payment through DoT's website was highly unusual and that the company could not have made the payment even a moment earlier than it did.

''Despite the mayhem, our representative in the DoT deposited the payment and all the documents, as soon as this was accepted from him. During those minutes, the DoT functionaries controlled all the activities and human traffic,'' Mr Aga said.

There was chaos in the DoT office on Thursday, as applicants rushed to collect the LoIs and make the payments.

Whoever made the payment first would top the government's list for getting spectrum and licenses as DoT has been following a first-come-first serve policy for allotting licenses and spectrum.

Idea and nine other companies, including Unitech, Datacom and Spice, have received LoI from DoT for starting operations in various circles and had made the requisite payment.

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