The Hindu Business Line : Tata Tele gets CDMA spectrum for 3 circles

North East, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir will get another mobile operator with the Government allocating CDMA spectrum to Tata Teleservices in these three circles. On Thursday, Sistema had also received radio frequency for the same areas.

Not many companies wanted to foray into these circles until a few years back due to the tough terrain and security concerns. At present, there are four operators offering GSM services in these three States.

Reliance, BSNL, Airtel and Aircel have a combined subscriber base about 7 million mobile users in the three Circles. As metros and urban cities get saturated, operators are moving towards C circle States to keep up the pace of growth.

For Tata Teleservices, this will enable the company to expand its presence in all the 22 Circles across the country making it a pan India operator. At present, Bharti Airtel and Reliance are the only operators with a national footprint. Other operators including Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Aircel have been given licences and are awaiting spectrum before they can join the club of operators with pan-India presence. Tata Teleservices will be in a position to launch services in the three Circles by the end of the year.

Tatas are also awaiting spectrum for launching GSM services. The Government had earlier allowed mobile companies to offer both GSM and CDMA services. However, with a number of companies clamouring for GSM spectrum, the Department of Telecom does not have enough to accommodate all the operators.

State-owned BSNL also has been given the permission to launch CDMA mobile services across the country. When Reliance Communication and Tata Teleservices announced plans to launch GSM-based cellular services, it was widely believed that it was the end of story for CDMA in India. However, the announcement from BSNL, Shyam-Sistema and now Tata Teleservices that they are rolling out pan Indian CDMA network has given a new lease of life for the future of this technology.

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