New entrants in the telecom arena have begun questioning the government’s rationale for withholding release of radio frequency, although nine circles have 50-60 Mhz of frequency that is good to meet their requirement.

An official of one of the new telecom licensees said that the frequency or spectrum available in these nine circles, including Maharashtra and Kolkata, was enough to accommodate both new players as well as the need of existing GSM players.

The murmurs have started as any delay in allocation of spectrum would deny them a chance to partake in the telecom growth story, which is seeing addition of more than seven million users per month.

Idling the available resource will give advantage to existing GSM players, as well as Reliance Communications (which has secured GSM spectrum under dual technology clause), besides affect government’s revenues and growth of telecom sector, sources contended.

One of the new entrants in the field said that further delay could also spoil the business of new players, who are likely to put in huge investments to roll out networks.

The new players, who have made the required payment for the spectrum more than two months ago, include Videocon promoted Data Com, Shyam Telelink which has partnered with Russian telecom giant Sistema, realty major Unitech, Swan Telecom, B K Modi’s Spice Communications and S Tel.

Earlier, the government had indicated that they would start allocating spectrum to new players wherever it is available, while continuing negotiations with the defence ministry for vacation of more spectrum in other states.

For this, the Department of Telecom (DoT) had carried out a feasibility study to ascertain the availability of radio frequency in each state district wise.

According to highly placed sources, DoT is understood to have divided the country into three categories with circles that have spectrum in abundance, little and no spectrum at all.

Asked by when DoT may start allocating spectrum, sources said it may take another month or even more. Some of the new players, who are in favour of floating a parallel lobby to existing GSM body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), have alleged that the existing GSM operators were adopting tactics and putting pressure on the government to delay the allocation of spectrum by filing court cases one after another.

But neither telecom tribunal TDSAT nor Delhi High Court has stayed the process of allocation of spectrum. In Delhi, the most crowded market as regards cellular services, only one new telecom player can be accommodated and going by the first-come-first-serve policy of Telecom Minister A Raja, only Swan Telecom would qualify for spectrum.

Sources said that in nine circles — Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu — about 50-60 MHz of spectrum is available and was sufficient to allocate start up spectrum of 4.4 MHz to all the new players.

The second category include circles other than border states like Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Mumbai where some spectrum is available and only one or two players can be accommodated, sources said, adding that DoT may wait to get additional spectrum from defence ministry to entertain all the new players simultaneously so that no one could raise the controversial issue who should get it first.