The Hindu Business Line : DoT to seek additional spectrum for GSM players

New Delhi, June 27 In what could be a major boost for GSM mobile service providers, the Department of Telecom will seek approval of the Group of Ministers for vacating an additional 90 Mhz spectrum from the defence forces for use by commercial cellular operators.

This is in addition to the earlier announced 45 Mhz for both second generation and third generation mobile services, taking the total demand from DoT to 135 Mhz. This comes even as the defence forces have expressed concern at releasing new spectrum without being given an alternative reliable medium of communication.

However, in a presentation to be made before the GoM, the Wireless Planning and Coordination wing of the DoT has proposed that the optical fibre cable project being rolled out by the state-owned BSNL will cover 400 points across the country at a cost of over Rs 1,000 crore and this would enable the defence forces to release spectrum in addition to the earlier announced 45 Mhz.

As per DoT’s proposal, an additional 35 Mhz can be vacated in the 1920-1980 Mhz band for use by GSM- based third generation services and another 45 Mhz in the 1710-1785 frequency band for the existing GSM-based cellular operators.

DoT has also said that the Defence had already committed to release 10 Mhz spectrum in the 1710-1785 Mhz band as per the agreement of the National Frequency Allocation Plan 2002. DoT has observed that in some cases even this spectrum has not yet been released by the defence agencies. In order to push its case for vacating spectrum DoT has said that no one can claim right of ownership to frequencies that have been allotted by the Government. It has also pointed to international practices where the defence forces in the UK, Germany and USA vacated up to 200 Mhz spectrum for promoting mobile usage.

Revenues

“The Government can expect to earn revenues of around Rs 50,000 crore by 2010 from telecom operators if the services continue to grow at the current pace. However, spectrum crunch will lead to unsatisfactory quality of service, which in turn could hinder the growth. Hence, spectrum refarming, which is being implemented world over, is essential,” said the DoT presentation.

The WPC has also proposed to impose spectrum charges for the frequencies used by the defence on the grounds that all users of radio waves, including State Governments, are currently paying a fee.

However, the proposals do not find any mention of spectrum for CDMA-based operators.

More Stories on : Broadband | Telecommunications | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
‘Indian Ocean Dipole event driving rainfall’

11 Indian cos in S&P Asia Shariah Index

AIA Engg: Betting on growth hopes

Daimler re-enters commercial vehicle space; no truck with Tatas

Real estate prices may soften: Parekh

US Senators slam IT cos again

‘India could lose offshore market share to China’

National Housing Bank plans mortgage guarantee outfit

DoT to seek additional spectrum for GSM players

Rupee appreciation: Exporters may get relief