The Hindu Business Line : The march towards 3-G

The war of letters between GSM and CDMA operators — the two technology camps vying for valuable frequency spectrum — broke out in right earnest once the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India announced the third generation (3-G) mobile telephony recommendations last week. Even as the skirmishes go on, it is commendable that the regulator has chosen the right course of `auctioning' the scarce spectrum.

The competitive bidding has the potential to yield at least Rs 9,500 crore for the government, which can be used by the Defence forces to create alternative communication links and vacate spectrum for commercial use. TRAI has also prudently identified spectrum separately for 3-G treating it as a distinct class of mobile service, which it is. It is predominantly driven by bandwidth-rich, high-speed data services such as multimedia messaging or video streaming vis-a-vis the primarily voice-based 2-G.

As a distinct class of service, the requirements of handsets, equipment and technology for 3-G are different from 2-G. While the competitive bidding for spectrum is welcome, these recommendations are contestable on at least three counts. One, by stating that only the existing operators can bid for 3-G spectrum, the regulator is effectively shutting the doors on new players.

Two, by allocating additional spectrum in the 800 MHz band, applicable to CDMA, the regulator is once again disturbing the level playing field between this and the GSM camp. Finally, the rationale for introducing rollout obligations for 3-G is questionable, since the entire telecom sector has been moving away from that policy for the past few years.

Krishnan Thiagarajan

More Stories on : Broadband | Telecommunications | The Big Deal

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