Spectrum for mobile services will be available in Nov: Raja
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Operators
spar over method of allocation |
Our
Bureau
Spectrum
release
“The spectrum issue with the
Ministry of Defence will be resolved by November end,”
Mr Raja said. The Communications Ministry has been
demanding release of 45 MHz of spectrum from the Defence
Ministry for further expansion of mobile sector. However, the Defence forces had refused to release the airwaves unless
an alternative medium of communication was set up by the Department of Telecom.
However, with DoT now on the verge of completing an
optical fibre cable network connecting key Air Force
installations, about 25 Mhz
of spectrum is expected to be released in the first phase.
Claims
of First right
But the DoT
has a new problem at hand with several companies already claiming first right
to spectrum even before it is released. Existing GSM
operators lead by the Cellular Operators Association of India said that they
had the first right to spectrum since the licence
agreement with the Government assures adequate radio frequency based on the
operator’s subscriber base.
In a presentation made during the
meeting with the Minister of Communication, the COAI said that the existing
spectrum allocation criteria should be continued with and all operators who
have applied before December 2006 should be given priority.
From the GSM camp, Mr Sunil Mittal, Chairman and
Managing Director, Bharti Group, Mr
Asim Ghosh, CEO, Vodafone Essar, Mr Sanjeev
Aga, Managing Director, Idea Cellular, were present
for the meeting.
CDMA
opposition
The GSM operators were opposed by Mr Mahendra Nahata,
Chairman, HFCL, and Mr Rajiv
Mehrotra, Chairman, Shyam Telelink, on the grounds that as per the licence agreement, the Government should allocate only 6.2 Mhz of bandwidth to the existing
operators.
The AUTSPI said that CDMA players
wanted the same amount of spectrum as was being given to GSM players.
Source:- The Hindu Business Line
Corporate Bureau
Posted online:
New Delhi, Oct 3 Emphasising the
need to speed up development of telecom infrastructure, communications and IT
minister A Raja on Wednesday asked the department of telecommunications (DoT) to form a focus group to identify ways and means to
bring broadband connectivity in rural areas at a faster pace.
“Poverty and unemployment in the rural sector are major challenges our
country is facing today. Companies while ensuring profits for themselves should
also focus on how they can use new technologies to address these problems,” the
minister said while releasing the Compendium on Next Generation Networks (NGN).
Raja said new innovative technologies in NGN could be used to support ICT to
accelerate the present rate of rural coverage and that
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COAI argument faulty, misleading,
says AUSPI New Delhi, Oct. 3: The GSM operators body cellular
operators association of India (COAI) and CDMA body association of unified
telecom service providers of India (AUSPI) clashed over the issue of
allocation of spectrum at a meeting called by telecom minister A. Raja on
Wednesday to discuss the telecom scenario. In his presentation COAI
director-general T.V Ramachandran favoured the continuation of the current
subscriber-linked criterion for the allocation of spectrum. "Subscriber-linked criteria
ensures optimal use of spectrum and facilitates improved competition which is
ideal solution for Mr Ramachandran
said that GSM operators have deployed all available spectrum optimisation techniques to achieve full utilisation of this valuable resource. He said that GSM
operators have already achieved inter-site distances of less than 100 metres which is a far closer BTS density than by any
other country. "Their demand for spectrum is based on usage of old
technology available in 2003. The presentation given by the GSM operators is
not at all factually correct. It is misleading. They have twisted the facts
and figures," Mr Khanna
said. |
Source:
Business News
Telecom
News dated 04-10-2007