The Department of Telecommunications has called a meeting of the heads of all leading telecom companies offering GSM technology services on November 21 to resolve contentious issues that have arisen following recent changes in telecom policy.
A letter to this effect signed by DoT Secretary D S Mathur has been sent to Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani, Vodafone Inc CEO Arun Sarin, Maxis Communications Chairman Anand Krishnan, Bharti group's Sunil Mittal, Idea Cellular's Kumar Mangalam Birla and Spice Telecom's B K Modi.
Serious differences have arisen between GSM players and the government on many issues, some of which are scheduled for hearing before the telecom tribunal.
GSM players, which account for more than two-thirds of telecom services in India, have opposed the government's decision permitting dual-spectrum usage on the same licence.
Under this policy, operators of the rival CDMA technology are now entitled to GSM spectrum without submitting a separate licence.
Reliance Communications, the country's largest CDMA-technology operator, has already been given a letter of intent to operate GSM services.
The GSM lobby has also questioned the move to significantly raise the subscriber base criterion for telecom companies to qualify for additional spectrum, the radio frequencies that enable mobile communications.
Spectrum has been in short supply and several players have been waiting for allocations since December 2006. The issue has snowballed into a controversy because operators urgently need spectrum to keep pace with rapid increases in subscribers.
The GSM lobby has also objected to the government policy on allocating spectrum for third-generation (3G) services, which enable access to high-speed internet data.
The government has gone against the telecom regulator's recommendation and allowed newer players (including foreign companies ) to bid for spectrum for such services.
Recently, however, there have been some indications from the Cellular Operators' Association of India, the GSM operators' lobby, that it is open to dialogue with the government.
This was marked by COAI agreeing to accept auctioning of spectrum of second-generation (2G) services -- which refers to services that are currently being offered -- beyond the 10 Mhz band. COAI had earlier opposed this.
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