In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the CEOs of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea asked the government to return the money they had bid for the third-generation (3G) spectrum with interest if they are not allowed to enter intra-circle roaming for these services.
“We submit that, in the event that 3G intra-circle roaming is now deemed impermissible, then it would be a clear breach of our contract and the pre-auction confirmation given by the government. In that eventuality, we request that our spectrum auction payments be refunded to us with interest, along with compensation for all the capital investments made by us,” said the letter signed by Bharti Enterprises chief Sunil Bharti Mittal, Aditya Birla group chief Kumar Mangalam Birla and Vodafone Group plc CEO Vittorio Colao.
Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular had entered into a roaming agreement in July this year to serve their respective customers in circles in which they had failed to get 3G spectrum in last year’s auction.
This would help operators offer 3G services to customers in circles where they cannot build their own 3G networks as they do not have licences. This agreements, however, has been termed illegal by the department of telecom and Trai, which believes these are tantamount to spectrum sharing. Last year’s 3G spectrum auction earned over `68,000 crores in revenue for the government.
In the letter, these operators claimed their right to enter into intra-circle roaming was “also expressly confirmed by the department of telecom in the run-up to the 3G auctions”.