Tata Tele quits COAI,says lobby is biased

Calling the GSM lobby,COAI,an obstacle in the growth of the Indian telecom industry and its functioning undemocratic,biased and unethical,Tata Teleservices today resigned from the core membership of the association....

Calling the GSM lobby,COAI,an obstacle in the growth of the Indian telecom industry and its functioning undemocratic,biased and unethical,Tata Teleservices today resigned from the core membership of the association.

In a letter to the director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI),the company said,We have found that COAI is not a transparent association and represents the views of only a few selected old players,as all powers/rights are vested in their hands… By doing so,COAI along with these few older players,has become an obstacle in the growth of the Indian telecom industry.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has telecom giants like Bharti Airtel,Vodafone and Idea Cellular as its core members. Last week,Sanjay Kapoor,CEO of Bharti Airtel,was elected chairman of the association. The company said that the GSM association riveted around only the myopic growth of a few telecom operators and did not represent all the members. TTSL does not wish to continue associating with an association which just doesnt seem to be able to work in a just and equitable manner. We,hereby,formally tender our resignation as core member of COAI, it said.

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Last week,the COAI had barred Tata teleservices,along with Loop Telecom and Etisalat,from exercising their franchise as the companies had not paid disputed dues.

COAI denied the allegations of being undemocratic,non-transparent and biased by one its core members,the Tatas,and said the observations are born out of frustration rather than fact. TTSL is a member of two associations AUSPI (a lobby group of CDMA operators) and COAI. So it is obvious that there is a conflict of interest… This type of observation is probably borne out of frustration,rather than fact, COAI Director-General Rajan Mathews said,reacting to the allegations made by TTSL.