The war continues...
WLLcos denied more spectrum
Siddharth Zarabi, HT Corporate Bureau,
December 30, 2004
Attempts of CDMA mobile operators like Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices to get additional spectrum may have come unstuck. The department of telecom's Wireless Planning Commission has fixed higher eligibility criteria for releasing additional radio spectrum. In addition to higher minimum user slabs in the metros, the operators will need to have at least 16 base stations per hundred square kilometres for the largest city in a short distance calling area.
The minimum subscriber base has been set at 3 lakh for Delhi, Mumbai service areas and 2 lakh in Chennai and Kolkata for allocation of the third CDMA carrier (3.75 Mhz). For other areas, at least 4 lakh users in category A circles, 3 lakh in category B and 1.5 lakh in category C circles has been set. To get the fourth carrier (5 Mhz), operators will need to have 1 million users in Delhi and Mumbai; 6 lakh in Chennai and Kolkata. In category A, B, C telecom circles, operators need to have 12, 10 and 5 lakh users respectively.
However, some leeway has been provided as a transitory arrangement. Operators will be able to apply for additional channels after reaching 75 per cent of the prescribed number. In circles where operators have already got additional channels on the basis of old norms, the allocation will continue.
As of November 2004, Reliance had a total of 9.79 million users while Tata had around 2.15 million users spread across the nation. Broken up on a circle-wise basis, it is clear that the operators will have to work harder to get additional spectrum.
The demand for additional spectrum is currently a bone of contention between the CDMA and GSM camps, and the telecom regulator and DoT. GSM operators say that the latest order made it clear that the demands for additional spectrum beyond 5 Mhz for CDMA operators were unjustified. Reacting strongly to this, the CDMA operators association is now looking at the TRAI to bail them out. It added that GSM operators had been given far more spectrum on a comparative basis in areas like Delhi.
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