The Hindu Business Line : GSM operators can now get spectrum up to 15 Mhz

Dishing out more
Allocation based on the norms proposed by TRAI.
Upper limit for CDMA operators have also been increased to 7.5 Mhz compared to 5 Mhz in the earlier order.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Jan 18 Under pressure from the GSM operators, the Department of Telecom on Friday announced a revised roadmap for allocation of additional spectrum whereby mobile operators can be given up to 15 MHz – depending on the subscriber base. The DoT, on January 9, had announced a plan to allocate maximum spectrum of only up to 7.2 Mhz.

As per the new policy, Bharti Airtel has enough subscribers to get 1 Mhz spectrum each in Delhi, Maharashrata, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Vodafone will get additional frequency in West Bengal and Dishnet Wireless now owned by Aircel qualifies to get more radio waves in Assam.

The Cellular Operator’s Association of India, representing the GSM players, on Thursday had told the Government that the move to cap spectrum allocation at 7.2 Mhz was against the commitment given by the DoT to the telecom tribunal. DoT had told the telecom tribunal that it would allocate spectrum based on the norms proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which had suggested a maximum of 15 Mhz per GSM operator per circle.

The upper limit for CDMA operators have also been increased to 7.5 Mhz compared to 5 Mhz in the earlier order. While the COAI welcomed the move to specify allocation up to 15 Mhz to GSM operators, it said that the decision to allocate only 1 Mhz per operator was against the TRAI recommendations since at present additional spectrum is given in chunks of 1.8 Mhz at a time.

COAI said that since the quantum of spectrum has been reduced the subscriber base required to meet the criteria should also be revised.