Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Jun 30, 2006
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Jun 30, 2006 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications Industry & Economy - Industry Associations COAI seeks level playing field on spectrum; dismisses CDMA claims Our Bureau
New Delhi , June 29 The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) today opened up a new front in the ongoing battle for spectrum by shooting off a letter to Communication and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, seeking level playing field with CDMA operators. COAI, which represents the interests of the GSM operators, said the CDMA operators were indulging in misinformation to influence the Government policy. The war of letter between GSM and CDMA over the spectrum had been lying dormant for some time now. Earlier, the Tata Group had begun the war of letters by writing to the Communications Ministry saying that the spectrum policy favoured the GSM operators since they were getting double radio frequency for the same number of subscribers. DoT had announced a subscriber linked spectrum allocation policy hereby operators with higher subscriber base were to get more spectrum. CDMA players had said the policy was punishing them for using a more efficient technology by giving only half the amount of spectrum as was being given to GSM players. The fresh salvo from COAI follows statements made by Qualcomm that Reliance Communications was shifting from CDMA to GSM due to lopsided spectrum policy. In the letter COAI pointed out "in fact, the CDMA operators not only have a huge initial advantage over GSM as a result of paying a lower entry fee, but also continue to enjoy an enormous ongoing advantage in terms of lower annual spectrum usage charges. The CDMA demand for equal MHz spectrum is completely untenable. Further, it may be noted that it is mandated under license that CDMA operators should optimally utilise their existing allotments before seeking additional spectrum." COAI said it estimated that CDMA operators have at least 40 per cent spare capacity within the already-allotted spectrum.
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