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Business News/ Industry / Telecom/  Airtel, Vodafone, Idea want part of CDMA spectrum for GSM tech
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Airtel, Vodafone, Idea want part of CDMA spectrum for GSM tech

GSM operators ask govt to earmark airwaves frequencies from 880 MHz onwards, instead of from 890 MHz

Telecom operators prefer 900 MHz band as they need to deploy fewer telecom towers compared with that in 1,800 MHz band. Photo: Rajkumar/Mint (Rajkumar/Mint)Premium
Telecom operators prefer 900 MHz band as they need to deploy fewer telecom towers compared with that in 1,800 MHz band. Photo: Rajkumar/Mint
(Rajkumar/Mint)

New Delhi:Bharti Airtel Ltd, Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd have demanded allocation of a part of CDMA spectrum in 800 MHz band for GSM services.

“We recommend that the 800 MHz spectrum band is harmonized with the international band plan to become part of an “extended" 900 MHz band; this will increase the availability of spectrum in the 900 MHz band by up to 10 MHz (or over 40%)," said a letter written by the three firms to the department of telecommunications.

The letter is signed by Bharti Airtel chief executive officer (India and South Asia) Sanjay Kapoor, Idea Cellular managing director Himanshu Kapania and Vodafone India managing director and CEO Marten Pieters.

Currently, airwave frequencies in 900 MHz band are used for transmitting signals for GSM mobile services.

The reach of signals transmitted in 900 MHz band is around two times more than that transmitted in 1,800 MHz band, for which the government had fixed a base price of 14,000 crore for 5 MHz pan-India spectrum in the recent auction.

Telecom operators prefer 900 MHz band as they need to deploy fewer telecom towers compared with that in 1,800 MHz band.

The CDMA spectrum provides more coverage than 900 MHz band but business eco-system for CDMA business is not well developed compared with GSM services.

The three GSM operators have demanded that the government earmark airwaves frequencies from 880 MHz onwards for GSM players instead of the current practice of allocating it from 890 MHz onwards.

“With the diminishing interest of operators in CDMA and the reducing subscriber base of the technology, we believe we need to harmonize and reconfigure the existing Indian CDMA band in line with the global practice," the letter said.

The telecom firms added that it will lead to optimum utilization of 800 MHz spectrum and “the government will also be able to generate revenues that were denied due to the absence of bidders for the 800 MHz spectrum during the auctions".

The government had fixed the price of 800 MHz spectrum at 1.3 times higher than that for 1,800 MHz band.

The GSM telecom firms said, “the reserve price for this 800 MHz band is kept at a reasonable level in congruence to the market realities and all existing operators be allowed to bid".

The government may re-auction 800 MHz band by March 2013.

Immediate comments from Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India that represents CDMA operators were not received.

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Published: 25 Nov 2012, 05:22 PM IST
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