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GSM giants unlikely to be allocated more bandwidth - 30th Oct 2007
AN AUCTION-based regime or a furious investment binge to boost their subscriber base may be the only way out for GSM-based mobile service operators clamouring for more spectrum from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Signals are strong that a technical panel that oversees requirements on the basis of which wireless spectrum is allocated is likely to endorse the views of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) outlined in August and followed by the DoT. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is the body that groups GSM players such as Bharti Airtel, Ideal Cellular. Spice and Vodafone Essar. The field has become tough with CMDA players Reliance and Tata being given spectrum to run GSM services while new licence seekers may also jump in eventually GSM operators had dragged Department of Telecommunication (DOT) to the industry tribunal seeking relief from the "biased" telecom rules of October 19,But the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), which is studying spectrum efficiency of incumbent operators and is expected to submit its report on spectrum allocation criteria to the government on October 30 may not bring relief to the incumbents. TRAI and in its wake, the DoT, have backed a two to sixfold rise in subscriber base, thus tightening the criteria for allocation of spectrum."There are many assumptions that change the scenario (of spectrum utilisation) drastically but there will be no reduction in the subscriber base from what has been suggested by the TRAI." Fundamentally the message to incumbent operators is Expand your networks, get more subscribers and use your existing spectrum better before asking for more TEC has been recommending efficient network design and deployment of hightech spectrum utilisation techniques in order to boost efficient use of scarce bandwidth But that wrould involve investments by GSM players. GSM operators are a worried lot and say that subscriber base required for the next lot of spectrum allotment has been increased by almost 700 per cent. That means if an operator would be required to serve 100 subscribers before being allotted additional spectrum, he would now have to serve 800 subscribers before being eligible for the next tranche of spectrum.
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