News

Taking a middle path on spectrum allocation, the government on Wednesday decided to assign additional frequencies to GSM players according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) criteria, but in multiples of 1 MHz, as suggested by the government-industry review panel on spectrum.

The Trai criteria increased the subscriber norm by two to five times, while the department of telecommunications (DoT) technical wing, the Telecom Engineering Centre, subsequently tightened it by up to eight times.

The review panel, headed by DoT additional secretary R Bandhopadhyay, subsequently recommended that incremental spectrum be reduced to 1 MHz from 1.8-2.4 MHz, which has been the allocation up until now for GSM players.

DoT will now file an affidavit with the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal and the Delhi High Court, where the GSM players have challenged the government on its spectrum allocation norms.

Though an in-principle decision on the additional spectrum norms has been taken by communications & IT minister A Raja, officials said DoT is still to decide when it would start allocating additional as well as start-up spectrum.

While the news brought some relief to GSM operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, it did not go down very well with CDMA players like Reliance Communications.

GSM lobby group Cellular Operators' Association of India viewed it as a practical way forward, though not a perfect solution. COAI had challenged Trai's revised criteria saying it was not based on scientific calculation.

Reliance Communications, on the other hand, said the government's decision to accept Trai's norms for allotment of additional spectrum is tantamount to succumbing to the pressure tactics of the GSM lobby. "This is unnecessary and unwarranted concession given to them," the company said in a statement.

Trai, in its recommendations on August 28, had said for efficient use of spectrum there was need to tighten the subscriber criteria in all circles.The news created a furore among GSM service providers, while CDMA players welcomed the proposal.