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GSM Lobby Makes A Case For ‘Harmonizing’ CDMA Spectrum
About 3 weeks ago, it was seen that Videocon walked out on the CDMA spectrum auction, as announced by the Department of Telecom. The following day, the remaining lone bidder for the entire process of CDMA spectrum auction, Tata Teleservices, declared that it saw no real business case or opportunity in the investment of new CDMA spectrum given the ailing state of CDMA business in Indian telecom’s consumer ecosystem. That left the CDMA auction in the lurch and has been ever since shelved, as the current Telecom minister Kapil Sibal plans to put them up for fresh auction in the month of March next year. But it emerges that a lobby of telecom players has come together to somehow push for the divestment of airwaves from CDMA spectra into the GSM fold.
As word is, coming from the latest report by the Press Trust of India, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea cellular have joined hands in putting forward a petition that request the authorities to ‘harmonize‘ the left over airwaves in the CDMA spectrum, into the already successful and fledging GSM fold. The move is being seen as a strategic initiative to softly coerce the DoT into releasing the spectrum from 880 MHz onwards for the utilization in GSM airwaves deployment. Currently, GSM waves are deployed from 890 MHz which makes them categorized under the 900 MHz, and CDMA being in the 800 MHz.
For a long time now, a few years after Reliance debuted in the CDMA, the business ecosystem in this sector of telecommunication has eroded and unlike in the Western countries, CDMA has not enjoyed the pie crust of laurels. Though CDMA is technologically far more advanced and enables better prospects for the 4G/LTE technology – the high battery demands from CDMA enabled devices, the already well placed position of GSM in Indian Markets and also the lack of good CDMA device and service support in India – have slowly made it extinct in normal terms for a layman.
If the move made by this lobby materializes, then this would mean some huge respite for the telecom giants since they would stand to save a lot from the incumbent auctions. The move makes more sense, since the recent auction of 2G Spectrum in the 1800 MHz band saw very scant interest from these entities. Technically speaking, the 900 MHz band enables double the coverage as compared to the 1800 MHz, which would allow the companies in cutting back on the telecom tower installation. While the Government in the past has been rather unfettered by actions by such lobbies, the recent jolt to its expected influx of funds (approx US$ 10 billion) may render this as a good alternative. The Government could gather only 17% of what it hoped in the 1st round of auction, prompting it to announce further rounds of auctions early next year.
While the DoT, backed by the Government, has played hardball for quite sometime now; this option looks like a winner for the entire Telecom ecosystem in India!
Image Source | PublicInterestFoundation
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2012-11-26 05:11:38
Source: http://www.watblog.com/2012/11/26/gsm-lobby-makes-a-case-for-harmonizing-cdma-spectra/
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