We have been endlessly reporting about the never ending Tom and Jerry like fights of TRAI (Telecom regulatory authority of India) and DoT (Department of Telecom) almost every  week. So we thought it would be nice to recapitulate the best of our collection for you. However, we still wonder what makes them fight like cats and dogs?

Let’s start the never ending session with, their differences over the talk-of-the-town 3G networks. The rift between the two started happening following the DoT's apathetic attitude over the recommendation made by TRAI. In the first week of May, TRAI shot off a letter to the finance ministry requesting it not to allow foreign players to participate in the 3G auction, against the DoT's firm stand to include foreign players for the 3G auction. TRAI even tried justifying its stand by saying existing players have already made a huge investment in the infrastructure and allowing foreign players will add to the competition. The DoT must have perceived the recommendation as not so worthy and didn’t give the idea a moment's notice.

Fretting with anger, on being ignored on May 30th, TRAI Chairman Nripendra Mishra sent a letter to the DoT reminding it of the TRAI Act. As, per the act, DoT should seek the recommendations of the regulator before making any amendments to the unified service access license (UASL). Mishra has also warned he will take the DoT to court if it fails to follow the protocol.

June 9th saw another twist, similar to a Bollywood-masala film. The recommendation made by TRAI may not have made sense to communication minister A.Raja, but for a section of his ministry it did make sense. As, they supported TRAI's  decision of limiting the 3G auction and also prepared a note for the prime minister listing the advantages of limiting the 3G auction to limited players. It was assumed that the reason behind the diversity in the DoT was because of the upcoming probe by the central vigilance commission.

DoT was affirmative on its stand, for which on June 11th, Trai once again sent a billet doux to the department of telecommunications cautioning it against its decision. But ultimately it was the DoT, which had the last laugh. On July 2nd,  the DoT finaliszd the policy on third generation (3G) spectrum in India that allows foreign telecom players to enter the Indian market.

When this was over, on July 22nd TRAI tried button-holing DoT by asking it to increase the entry fee for a pan-India telecom licence. And six days later another fight popped up. This time, TRAI demanded the extension of licence tenure for the existing service providers. It favoured the existing telcos who wanted their licences renewable for free. DoT had fixed a renewal fee of $192.6 million (Rs 825 crore) for a ten year extension.

However, the 3G policy was declared after much ado but the tug-of-war continues to a never ending path.  Today TRAI pointed six shortcomings in the 3G policy, announced by DoT and once again reminded the latter of the Trai act.

Well this was the 3G episode of Tom and Jerry, oops sorry, we mean Trai and DoT. However, apart from 3G, they have had many other clashes including one over mobile number portability.

It's difficult to say what makes TRAI oppose every decision of DoT, we wonder if it's for publicity and media coverage. It looks like Bollywood's publicity hounds have inspired our telco officials. X