Last November, the Union Cabinet had approved 4.4 MHz of start-up GSM spectrum to
Tata Teleservices in the national capital region at no additional charge, subject to availability, after an inter-ministerial panel on spectrum, headed by finance minister P Chidambaram, ratified
DoT's decision to give this to the company at the 2001 price.Tata Tele, however, claims its Delhi GSM services launch is hanging fire as it is yet to recieve its approved start-up airwaves. "The government has not yet allotted Tata Teleservices the start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz in Delhi and 39 districts spread across nine circles, and we await the government's positive action in this regard," said a spokeswoman of Rediffusion, which is Tata Tele's agency partner, explaining why the company has yet to launch services in Delhi.
Partners from the ecosystem, however said, if Tata Tele were really interested in a speedy launch, it would have started deploying the network already, given that receiving spectrum is just a matter of time.
