Spectrum is not a hindrance for telecom growth now

Even as the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are trying to hammer out the best deal for their respective domain, it is believed that there’s no “immediate” crisis in the country’s mobile telephony sector despite a spectrum crunch.

A DoT source told DNA Money, “The numbers game will continue for another 8 to 10 months, even in the current spectrum scenario.” He was referring to the mobile growth story witnessing 7-8 million per month increase in wireless subscriber numbers in the recent times.

The tug of war that is being played out between Defence forces and DoT is for spectrum, a scarce resource that is essential for mobile phone services.

The Defence side wants to vacate spectrum only when an alternate secure network with in-built encryption is provided by DoT. But, DoT is insisting that the Defence must start vacating spectrum as soon as possible, while it can set up the alternate secure network for Defence over a period of two years.

A DoT source said, “There’s no spectrum problem in rural areas, where teledensity is quite low.”

But, in metros, where mobile numbers are extremely high, more spectrum is required for better quality of service, he added.

Although India is all set to reach the target of 250 million phones ahead of time, one should keep in mind the next milestone of 500 million phones. “Unless adequate spectrum is provided soon, it would be a challenge to reach the target of 500 million phones by the end of 2010.”

The government set the target of 250 million phones by the end of 2007, and 500 million by 2010 end. Of the 250 million phones by 2007 end, 200 million were expected to be mobiles. As of end of August, India crossed the magic figure of 200 million mobile phones.

Bharti, Vodafone likely to get extra spectrum

Mobile phone users in Delhi and Mumbai may soon get over the problems of call drops, busy networks and poor connectivity. The two largest operators in the two cities, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, may get extra spectrum for Delhi and Mumbai under the existing subscriber-base norms.

As per official sources, this will avoid a direct face-off with other GSM operators, especially in the light of the recent recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which has set a certain increase in the number of subscribers as a norm for getting extra spectrum. The department of telecommunication is likely to treat Mumbai and Delhi circles as exceptions to this recommendation. Most of Bharti and Vodafone subscribers are in Delhi and Mumbai and, consequently, the network congestion is the maximum in these two cities. Therefore, more spectrum to the two operators would not raise the hackles of other GSM operators.

In the other circles, there is no immediate spectrum requirement, which leaves the DoT with sufficient time to work on the Trai recommendations. But Bharti Airtel and Vodafone may have to pay a one-time additional charge for the extra spectrum, as has been recommended by Trai. Giving the two operators more spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai is seen as a strategic move by the DoT to avoid any litigation in the sector. At the same time, it will be able to work peacefully on a comprehensive 2G spectrum policy.

A recent Trai recommendation has increased circle-specific subscriber-base requirement 2 to 5 times for an operator to be eligible for extra spectrum. It has also proposed a one-time additional charge for spectrum beyond 8 Mhz. Both Bharti and Vodafone have at present 10 Mhz each in Delhi and Mumbai. To put it simply, an operator having 2.1 million subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai is eligible for a maximum of 15 Mhz spectrum.

Bharti has a subscriber base of 3.42 million in Delhi and 2.10 million in Mumbai. Vodafone has 2.82 users in Delhi as well as in Mumbai. So, both these operators are eligible for an extra 5 Mhz in keeping with the present norms.

The new Trai norms, however, propose that the eligibility norms be increased to 5 million subscribers. This means if Trai’s enhanced user-base criterion is considered, only Bharti will get extra spectrum, and that, too, just half of 5 Mhz, in Delhi.

• India buzzing with 200 mn mobile users

The country’s wireless market, the fastest growing in the world, crossed another milestone, with the subscriber base crossing the 200-million mark in August. The country added 8.31 million wireless subscribers, including GSM, CDMA and wireless in local loop (fixed) or WLL (F), in August to touch 201.29 million users, according to figures released by the Telecom Create Newsletter Mail - TelcomtrackIndia Admin Module

Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday.

India has thus met its 200-million mobile subscriber target four months ahead of schedule —the government had set the target for 2007-end — and just over a year after crossing the 100-million mark in May 2006. The target of 250 million phones in total (mobile plus fixed) is also close in sight. At the end of August, India had 241.02 million telephone subscribers, against 232.87 million at the end of July. The country’s teledensity improved slightly to 21.20% by August-end, against 20.52% by July-end, Trai data shows.

The wireline or fixedline segment stood at 39.73 million subscribers at the end of August, registering a decline of 0.16 million users during the month. Total broadband connections in the country increased by 0.09 million in August to reach 2.56 million.

According to figures released earlier by the Cellular Operators Association of India, the GSM operators’ representative body, the country’s GSM subscriber base reached 147.7 million at the end of August. The figure, however, doesn’t include Reliance Telecom subscriber numbers as the telco is yet to release its subscriber figures.

This means that the total CDMA and WLL (F) subscribers in the country stood at about 53.59 million at the end of August. Among the wireless operators, Bharti Airtel added 2.05 million users in August, taking its subscriber base to 46.8 million. Vodafone Essar, which added 1.67 million subscribers in August, had 34.11 million users.

Idea for number portability after 45% teledensity

Idea Cellular is in favour of implementation of number portability in the country only after teledensity crosses the 45 per cent mark. "The teledensity should be minimum of 45 to 50 per cent before number portability makes sense," said Mr Rajat Mukarji, chief corporate affairs,

Idea Cellular. "The problem with India is that there are some pockets with very high density and then there are pockets where there is nothing. So we have to reach some kind of level before we even think of implementing number portability," he said.

India’s teledensity has reached 21.20 per cent by the end of August this year. Teledensity is the number of people having a phone out of every 100 people. By global standards India’s teledensity is low but it is increasing.

On Pakistan implementing number portability Mr Mukarji said: "Pakistan has a teledensity of 30-35 per cent. Also it is a very small country only of the size of Punjab and Haryana." To another question on implementing number portability in metros first, he said, "Number portability doesn’t work in pockets." Number portability gives the consumer the freedom to change the telecom service provider, while retaining the number. As per a study by IDC 30 per cent of the subscribers will change their service provider if they are allowed to retain their

number. Though CDMA operators (Reliance and Tata) have lent their support for number portability, the GSM operators which have 70 per cent of the market share are against it. The fear of losing the customer base is one of the main reasons that old telecom players are against it. At the same time the telecom operators like Tata which entered the telecom scene late see number portability as an opportunity to poach customers from big players and increase their market share.

Go high tech to solve spectrum crunch: DoT

Spectrum crunch? Go high tech. That’s department of telecom’s (DoT’s) answer to operators

bemoaning inadequate spectrum. The Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), the technical arm of

DoT, has recommended emerging and existing technologies to optimise spectrum utilisation by

operators.

In a presentation made to telcos, TEC has recommended use of unlicensed spectrum through

use of Wi-Fi. Giving the example of Wi-Fi-enabled handsets that work on Wi-Fi while inside a

hotspot and switch over to GSM/WCDMA when outside, the DoT’s technical arm said the use

of unlicensed spectrum would save operators substantial spectrum charges besides

overcoming spectrum bottleneck.

It also recommended use of leaky coaxial cables, which have a slotted or perforated outer

conductor for radiating GSM signals, in tunnels, underground railway stations, mines, airports

and basements for better connectivity.

It also recommended synchronisation of base stations to achieve better performance. Most

GSM networks today are asynchronous, meaning that any given base station does not attempt

to align its transmitted signals with other base stations.

Another evolving technology recommended by TEC is enhancing capacity using antenna

arrays where communication on the traffic channels is confined to a narrow beam between the

base station and mobile station.

It has also made a case for Single Antenna Interference Cancellation (SAIC) technique. SAIC

enables mobiles to work at high interference levels. TEC quoted theoretical studies that show

that with a 100% SAIC mobile penetration, a capacity gain of 60-80% is achievable. It asked

the operators to consider the technique which is still under development.

On analysing spectrum requirement, TEC said there’s a need to analyse changes in traffic

pattern within a city, across cities and rural areas and a computational model needs to be

defined for spectrum utilisation in a more comprehensive manner.

It said that additional spectrum requirement depends on various parameters like number and

density of subscribers, geographical area such as urban, semi-urban or rural terrain and the

type of applications like voice, data or multimedia application.

The pattern of traffic, type of mobility and the technology — 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi and WiMax— also

influence spectrum needs, TEC said. Other parameters influencing spectrum requirement

include nature of traffic such as the extent of voice and data traffic in the network, the projected

market share of different operators and mergers and acquisitions which change the total

number of players in the market.

TEC said a framework of computation model should be flexible to create and review rules, and

should be comprehensive and it should be able to evaluate efficiency in a network with various

types of technology and traffic pattern among other things.

Date: 24-09-2007

Deccan