Spectrum war: end or the beginning?

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: The department of telecommunications (DoT) has been in full swing over the past few weeks and has finally acted on the long-pending issues bogging the sector. It finalised criteria for allocating spectrum and issued letters of intent (LoIs) to telecos wanting to expand operations. It also allocated GSM start-up spectrum to four players. But, none of these steps were flawless. DoT has drawn flak from all stakeholders over these actions and the spectrum war is far from over. In fact, it might be the beginning of a new brawl. On the surface, things seem to have smoothened, but a close look reveals more fissures.

Telecom experts say that the war might have gotten worse with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman Nripendra Misra questioning DoT’s moves.

CVC has asked DoT to explain the reasons for allotting spectrum to GSM players beyond their eligibility. “When in the licence agreements, it was written that the operators would be provided a cumulative maximum spectrum of 6.2 MHz, then under what circumstances did DoT permit higher quantum of spectrum?” It sent Dot top brass in to a huddle. CVC’s intervention may give a boost to CDMA lobby’s demand that GSM operators return spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz for allocation to the new players. The department has to make a detailed presentation to CVC on January 28.

Before CVC, in a strongly-worded letter to the newly-appointed DoT secretary Siddhartha Behura, Misra lashed out at the department for deviating from Trai’s criteria on GSM spectrum allocation and then ‘misinforming’ telecom tribunal TDSAT on Trai recommendations. “It will be unfair and misleading if Trai’s proposals were not implemented in totality… The likely availability of spectrum in different bands in all the circles, the time period by which it will be available for allocation and the criteria to be adopted for setting up the queue system needs to be made public.”

In December, DoT had totally accepted the subscriber base criteria suggested by Trai for CDMA operators. But for GSM spectrum, it took the middle path by deciding to allocate additional frequency in multiples of 1 Mhz, as suggested by a review panel on spectrum allocation.