The Hindu Business Line : Mobile operators favour cap on number of players

New Delhi, July 9 Mobile operators have told the telecom regulator that they were in favour of capping the number of cellular players, given the crunch in spectrum.

“It should be noted that the supply of spectrum, which is the most essential resource for mobile services, is completely regulated by the Government and is in serious short supply. It is submitted that when the spectrum is not available in the market place, it is absolutely absurd to even consider leaving the number of players to market forces,” said the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) in its response to the TRAI’s consultation paper.

Tata Teleservices said, “TTSL has pronounced itself in favour of opening up the market to new licencees, subject to the practical constraint that spectrum availability will naturally define the number of wireless access licence holders that can be accommodated. All licences issued by the Government should entail upfront allotment of adequate spectrum, suggested as 10 MHz in keeping with international best practice, with a pricing formula for further allocations beyond the contracted spectrum.”

However CDMA and GSM operators have given divergent views on the issue of allowing a single company to have a mix of technologies. “It is our firm view that crossover allotment of spectrum is not permissible under the present UAS licence, that is, a Unified Access Licencee offering Mobile services under CDMA-based systems cannot be allotted GSM spectrum also to offer Mobile Services, under the same UAS licence and vice-versa. We believe that it is neither necessary nor desirable to review this policy,” said COAI.

On the other hand, Reliance Communication has strongly made a case for allowing an operator to offer both GSM and CDMA mobile services under the same licence.