Reliance Communications Ltd, Bharti Airtel and Nokia may not get experimental licences to conduct outdoor trials and demonstrations for 3G services. This is because the defence forces have said that the trial frequencies could interfere with its existing operations, according to an internal note of the department of telecommunications (DoT).
Companies need 5 MHz in the 2.1 GHz band to conduct outdoor field trials for 3G services. While the government is yet to formulate a 3G spectrum allocation and pricing policy, sources said that trials help companies streamline processes and iron out glitches prior to rollout. The request for frequency and issue of experimental licences for outdoor trials and demonstrations from these three companies are currently with DoT.
At present, only Swedish equipment vendor Ericsson has been assigned frequency for 3G demonstration purposes in an outdoor environment, specifically in rural areas near Chennai, where it is conducting pilot projects for services like telemedicine and e-governance.
In an internal note, DoT stated ?the frequencies for 3G system in 2.1 GHz are yet to be vacated by the defence services. The assignment of frequencies for outdoor trials may pose interference to the existing operations of defence services?.
DoT has been assigning frequencies for the trial of 3G services to service providers and vendors ever since the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) came out with its recommendations on 3G services last September. However, MTNL, BSNL, Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Spice and Tata Teleservices have so far been assigned spectrum only for low-power indoor trials.
The assignment was for a three-month period, which ended in December 2006. In some cases, they were extended by three months. Trai had recommended several frequency bands for 3G services.