GSM operator Vodafone India, the third largest wireless company by customers, on Monday said

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that it is unhappy with the way regulations have been twisted in favour of one set of players in the industry and came out strongly against Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s November 3 letter that is in favour of one-time spectrum fee and a different spectrum allocation criteria based on rollout/cov-erage/market share, amo-ngst a host of other things.

Vodafone, in a letter to the department of telecommunications (DoT) and chairman of telecom commission, said that any decision to impose a one-time fee for spectrum already assigned to operators will be legally untenable.

The telecom major has said this is as per legal opinion and this type of fee will be in a breach of a bilateral settlement between the government and the industry in 2002, against the statements made on affidavit by DoT in Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) and also against the agreed terms of migration to a unified access license.

The letter was shared with journalists at a briefing today. If DoT implements the one-time fee, then incumbent operators like Vodafone may have to cough up around Rs 5,000 crore. Vodafone has said in the letter that the pricing report submitted by Trai in February 2011 for calculation of fees is ‘completely flawed’.

Bharti Airtel refused to comment while Idea Cellular spokesperson did not respond to email and text messages. Spokespersons of Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications could not be reached.

The telecom commission is likely to meet on November 28 to decide on regulator Trai's response on spectrum management and licensing framework. Earlier this month, Trai had sent back its recommendation to DoT.

Samaresh Parida, strategy director, Vodafone said: “We will continue to believe that right decisions will be made. While our business outlook about India remains positive, we hope that clarity will come on regulatory side.”

Parida’s comments ech-oed Bharti Airtel’s chief executive for India and South Asia Sanjay Kapoor who last week suggested that the current uncertainty over 3G intra-circle roaming deals was likely to have an effect on investors’ confidence in he sector and regular changes in policy were not helping anybody.

Talking about Trai’s statement about allocation of 700 MHz, Vodafone said: “we are deeply concerned with the statement of Trai that 800/900 MHz holders may be excluded from participating in 700 MHz auctions.” The company said adopting this would tantamount to a restrictive and exclusionary approach.

Vodafone said it is deeply concerned with continuation of technology-specific approach in a policy and licensing regime that is admittedly technology neutral. On its proposed IPO, Vodafone India officials said that decision was independent of the ongoing problems. “The IPO depends on a lot of conditions such as market sentiment” said Parida.

On the recent CBI raids at its premises, Vodafone said it is ready to co-operate with investigating agencies.