The Hindu Business Line : DoT to seek more spectrum from Defence forces for Delhi, Mumbai

New Delhi, Aug. 2 Telecom subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai can hope to get more number of 3G players if the Defence forces play sport. The Communications Ministry, on Friday, had said it had spectrum to accommodate only two operators in these two cities. However, senior Government officials said that the Defence could release another 15 Mhz, which will be adequate for three more operators.

“The Air Force is occupying this frequency band at the moment for some key installations in the two cities. Compared to other cities, Delhi and Mumbai have more number of Defence installations and therefore, the amount of spectrum available for commercial use is also less. But as per our analysis they can release some more spectrum in the 2.1 GHz band, which will be used for 3G mobile services,” said a Government official.

With just two slots being made available in Delhi and Mumbai, 3G services for consumers in these cities could be expensive.

That’s because, on one hand, State-owned MTNL has been given one slot and on the other, there could be at least eight-nine operators in the fray for the remaining slot. Since Delhi and Mumbai are both highly lucrative markets for telecom services, operators are expected to bid aggressively. If the operator ends up paying a high cost for acquiring the spectrum, then the services will become expensive.

Therefore, the industry is now pushing the Government to negotiate with the Defence to release more spectrum. The armed forces had earlier said that they would not vacate the spectrum unless the Government provides it with an alternative medium of communication at a cost of around Rs 5,000 crore.

Operators said that the Government could fund the armed forces’ network from the money collected during the auction.

The Communication Ministry expects to collect over Rs 30,000 crore from auctioning 3G spectrum.

However, Government officials said that even if an agreement is reached with the Defence, it will take more than a year before the spectrum is actually made available for auction. They said that more 3G operators for Delhi and Mumbai could be possible in the next phase of auctioning.

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