Tata Teleservices on Monday filed a petition in the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal asking them to direct operators to return excess spectrum held by them beyond the contracted 6.2 MHz.
The government has given most large GSM operators like Bharti, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular spectrum that is significantly beyond their contracted amount.
The company has also demanded a level playing field between GSM and CDMA players on spectrum.
The allocation of spectrum between GSM and CDMA is made in the ratio of 2:1 in favour of GSM operators.
The Tata group had raised the same issue in its meetings with Telecom Secretary D S Mathur, who had called on telecom chiefs to resolve the spectrum crisis.
Spectrum refers to the radio frequencies that enable wireless communication. It has been the source of a bitter dispute between mobile operators of the rival GSM and CDMA technologies.
In its petition, Tata Teleservices has also demanded immediate allocation of spectrum that is under the contractual obligation in areas in which it has fulfilled its subscriber base criterion.
Company executives said its request for spectrum has been pending for over 18 months.
Reliance Communications (RCom), the largest CDMA service provider, has written several letters to the government accusing GSM players of hoarding spectrum beyond their contracted amount.
The Tata petition covers many key issues that have already been brought out by RCom in its letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The petition has also asked for an interim stay on the proceedings of the committee that has been set up by the government to review the subscriber criterion for additional allocation of spectrum for GSM till amended terms of reference are issued.
The GSM representative has already withdrawn from the committee, which also consists of CDMA representatives and independent experts apart from DoT officials.
