India-- Qualcomm roots for spectrum hike
Fair connection
New Delhi, June 27: Qualcomm, the US-based pioneer of the code division multiple access (CDMA) technology for mobile phones, is lobbying the telecom regulator to allocate additional spectrum so that operators like Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom can spruce up their services.
The subscribers of these operators have been complaining about bad voice quality and call drops.
The telecom operators had attributed this problem to the lack of spectrum and had approached the telecom regulator seeking additional spectrum.
A team of senior executives consisting of technical experts, including Charles E. Wheatley, the co-developer of CDMA technology, met the officials of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to highlight the need to provide additional spectrum to these operators.
“The current allocation of spectrum is inadequate to serve the demand for voice services. The regulator should allocate adequate spectrum so that operators can provide a reasonable grade of service,” Qualcomm senior vice-president (technology) Charles E. Wheatley told The Telegraph.
The Qualcomm executives impressed upon the Trai members that this will help the market to determine which technology is better. They also stressed the need to ensure equal distribution of spectrum to operators using CDMA and global system for mobile communications (GSM) technologies.
“I feel that to end the discrimination, both the technologies should get equal amount of spectrum and any existing disparity should be removed. This will help the operators grow their networks and meet public demand for affordable and high-quality voice and date services,” said Wheatley.
“Based on the size and population of this country and the demand forecast of 100 million subscribers by 2005, large operators with nationwide footprint should have a minimum of 10+10 megahertz of spectrum,” he added.
The Qualcomm executive also highlighted to Trai the associated benefits that will flow from the release of additional spectrum to the operators. The growth of data services will spur economic expansion, create opportunities of growth in manufacturing of telecommunications equipment and growth in telecom service area both in high-tech and support services.
“China has become one of the leading manufacturers of telecom equipment in recent years due to the growing demand in that country for handsets and infrastructure,” said Wheatley.
Wheatley has also suggested to Trai that in order to dissuade spectrum hoarding, the regulator can set an appropriate spectrum cap. Any allocation of spectrum beyond the cap should be based on a pre-defined set of rules.
However, he said, “Allocation of large blocks of spectrum is necessary since it gives the operator an increased flexibility to better meet the needs of its subscribers. It would also encourage the operators to seek ways to become more efficient.”
On the importance of technology neutrality, an issue that rocked US and European countries, Wheatley has suggested that the regulator must maintain policies and incentives that are agnostic in terms of the technology used to provide service.
-------------------------------------------------
Sunil Jain: The great spectrum chase
RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS
Sunil Jain / New Delhi June 28,2004
For well over a year and a half this column has been arguing, using plain common sense as well as various judgements by the telecom dispute court, that the government’s move to allow WiLL/CDMA-mobile firms such as Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices a backdoor entry in the mobile telephony market was unfair.
Yet, the government went ahead, and once firms like Reliance began their ad blitz with a 40-paise offer for even long distance calls, it seemed just a matter of time before GSM-cellular firms got wiped out.
Indeed, at one point, the telecom regulator, Trai, even fixed interconnect charges that made it cheaper to call WiLL/CDMA phones from land lines in comparison to calling cellular phones!
Anyway, after a bruising battle in the marketplace, there are just 7.5 million WiLL/CDMA-mobiles in the country as compared to 26.2 million cellular ones, and in this year’s first quarter GSM players had a higher growth as well as earnings-per-customer.
Not surprisingly, the battle has now moved to the second and more decisive phase, and this time around, there is no role for the customer who raised a stink over Reliance’s billing problems for instance and even forced the company to change its marketing strategy.
The new battle is being fought completely in the courts of Trai and the government, and is about spectrum or the airwaves on which telecom signals travel to and from your phone.
Within this spectrum, the fight is about different bands that have been allocated to each type of mobile player — to ensure the signal from your car remote does not interfere with that of your FM radio, to use a non-telecom example, the government allocates different bands or frequencies for different services, and even for different players (like 91.0 MHz for Radio City and 98.3 for Radio Mirchi).
In telecom, such frequencies are specified by the International Telecom Union (ITU), as a sort of standard, and most countries tend to follow this since it allows equipment suppliers to develop their products to operate on certain frequency bands, apart from allowing seamless global roaming.
Today, to get back (finally!) to our story, even customers who don’t think too highly of the quality of the WiLL/CDMA services agree the quality of surfing on the Internet is vastly superior.
I’ve found in certain areas, surfing speeds are higher on a Reliance mobile as compared to even expensive ADSL connections — in any case, for people who want to use the Net on the move, there is nothing cellular phones have in comparison.
So, the cellular industry needs to move, as in the rest of the world, to what’s called 3G services. Without this, there is no hope for cellular firms in the market for genuine broadband high-value applications.
After its initial problems, due to excessive licence bids, 3G services have made a strong beginning. There are already thirty-three 3G networks in the world with 6 million customers and another 30 launches are expected during the year.
What could jeopardise this move, and that is the subject of this column, is the fight for spectrum. As long ago as 1992, the ITU earmarked the globally harmonised 1920-1980 MHz and 2110-2170 MHz frequency band (in jargon, the IMT 2000 paired band) for 3G services, whether offered by GSM players or by WiLL/CDMA players.
This was faithfully replicated in India’s National Frequency Allocation Plan. For the current levels of offerings (essentially 2G stuff), as the licence issued to the WiLL/CDMA-mobile firms specify, these firms will be issued spectrum in the 824-844 and 869-889 MHz band, and once this gets over, they will be allocated more spectrum in the 1710-1785 and 1805-1880 band.
Pretty clear so far, you’d say, so where’s the problem? The problem lies in the fact that the WiLL/CDMA firms are now arguing that even for their 2G operations they need spectrum in the 1900 MHz band as they’ve exhausted their existing allocation in the 800 band.
Two issues arise out of this. One, the exhausted-spectrum is a matter of dispute — indeed, the WiLL/CDMA firms are locked in a fight with a department of telecom committee which has poured a lot of cold water on their position.
Two, the 1900 MHz band clashes with part of the 3G band, effectively blocking the way forward for GSM cellular firms to graduate to newer levels of technology as there is a high degree of frequency disturbance that is caused by the fact that the uplink and downlink of the two systems clash.
Both the GSM cellular and WiLL/CDMA firms are locked in a battle of position-papers to argue their points. While it is true their licence says they should get fresh spectrum in the 1710-1785 and 1805-1880 band, the WiLL/CDMA firms now say there aren’t enough equipment suppliers in this band.
The GSM players, however, have come out with a list of suppliers who make equipment in this band! Besides, they add, countries like China which allow WiLL/CDMA players to operate in the 1900 band are planning to withdraw this so as to prepare for the launch of 3G services, whether these are offered by GSM or WiLL/CDMA players is irrelevant (Japan has 3G CDMA services already).
The US, being a very late entrant into the cellular business is the only other country that allows use of the 1900 band for WiLL-CDMA, and it has now come up with an altogether new frequency band for 3G services!
The telecom regulator has come out with a consultation paper that, not surprising given that it is asking for comments, is quite ambiguous. Which way the government will finally move will decide the future of the GSM versus CDMA/WiLL industry. If the past is any indicator, the signs for the GSM industry aren’t too bright.
suniljain@business-standard.com
business-standard.com
telegraphindia.com |
