New Delhi May 21

After much delay, the Department of Telecom has begun giving out additional spectrum for mobile operators. While Maxis controlled Aircel has got spectrum for launching services in Kolkata, State owned BSNL has got 2 Mhz of additional spectrum across the country.

The move comes even as private cellular operators have been demanding additional radio frequency to support the booming subscriber growth. Mobile operators in at least 20 cities are facing a huge spectrum crunch making the quality of service poor.

Existing GSM players have demanded that they have the first right to 2G spectrum. In a three tier structure proposed by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), GSM operators have said that the existing operators with pan India operations such as Airtel and Hutch should be given the first preference while allocating spectrum followed by operators such as Spice and Aircel which have services in a few circles and are planning to expand their presence to new areas. COAI has said that the third preference should be given to operators planning to make a switch from CDMA to GSM such as Reliance Communication, and in case spectrum is left after that, then the Government is free to invite new players after making sure that the existing players have enough radio frequency.

More spectrum will be released after the defence forces vacate the radio frequency. Defence is one of the largest consumers of spectrum and DoT is laying an optical fibre cable to shift their communication requirements from wireless to wireline. This would enable defence forces to vacate nearly 45 Mhz of spectrum. However the defence forces have insisted that the DoT bear the entire cost of the optic fibre cable project. They have also said that spectrum will be vacated only after the cable project is complete.

Taken from Business Line

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