Indian GSM lobby the COAI renewed its attack on the Tata-Virgin deal alleging that the tie-up was offering full range mobile services including sale of handsets, tariff plans, VAS and after sales which only license holders are allowed to offer.

On Tata’s claim that the tie-up is purely on franchisee model, the COAI said, “We suspect that going by the concept of franchising as understood worldwide, it is Tata Teleservices that may be acting as a franchisee of the Virgin Group for the use of the Virgin Mobile brand and business format expertise in India, instead of the other way round. This obviously has implications on whether this arrangement has been designed so as to allow Virgin Mobile India to offer mobile services in India, without owning a telecom licence.”

According to COAI the services offered by Virgin in India are similar to that offered by the firm in other parts of the world such as UK and Australia where it operates as a MVNO.

The lobby even alleged that the tie-up is in breach of the country’s FDI policy.