New Delhi, Nov 20: After a long silence, the Tatas on Monday staked a priority claim on GSM spectrum under the crossover technology spectrum policy announced by government on October 19.

"We believe we are the only legitimate applicant of GSM spectrum under this policy", Anil Sardana, MD, Tata Teleservices said. This is the first statement made by the Tatas' since the announcement of the policy, which saw Reliance become the immediate beneficiary and the GSM industry swiftly offer its legal opposition.

The Tatas', which have been silent on the issue, are now planning to assert their rights through the TDSAT. "We are impleaded in the matter and our lawyers will represent our stand at the next TDSAT hearing on 12 December", said Sardana.

"If the courts decide that the 3 previous applications are speculative, then the first legitimate application is the Tatas, as we are the first and only company to apply immediately after the policy was announced", he said.

However, telecom minister, A Raja, said, referred the Tatas' proposal to the law ministry, asking how its application should be treated, as it came after the policy announcement while all other requests (Reliance, HFCL and Shyam Telecom) came before.

Tatas' decision to now make its presence felt in TDSAT, firmly unsettles the governments' reported attempt to reach a compromise between GSM players and Reliance. A high level meeting of telecom CEO's with DoT secretary, DS Mathur, is planned for Wednesday to discuss a workable peace settlement. Ratan Tata is expected to attend.

The Tatas' application for GSM spectrum also plays havoc with new applicants by making their wait in queue for 2G spectrum under the first-come-first-served policy almost futile.

The Tatas' intervention is driven by a need to own two parallel networks.

Tata rights issue to repay Corus debt

Tata group company Tata Steel is coming out with a mega rights issue of about Rs 10,000 crore to repay the 'bridge loans' raised for funding acquisition of British steel behemoth Corus. "The proceeds will be used to repay bridge loans taken for acquisition of Corus. Tata Steel UK has raised 3.15 million pounds of debt for financing the acquisition," a Tata Steel spokesperson said. The issue, opening on November 22, will include 12.18 crore shares of Rs 300 each to be issued on rights basis in the ratio 1:5 and Cumulative Compulsory Preference Shares (CCPS) of Rs 100 to be converted into equity on September 1, 2009, he said. The issue will close on December 21, the spokesperson said, adding the record date for the issue was November 7, 2007. According to the Draft Letter of Offer filed with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the rights issue will fetch Rs 3,654 crore while CCPS will bring in Rs 6,000 crore.