Upset that the government wouldn?t be addressing the requirements of CDMA players in the forthcoming 3G policy, the Association of Unified Access Providers of India (Auspi) has accused of a bias in favour of the GSM players.
?The department of telecommunications (DoT) will be announcing very soon 3G policy which would provide 3G spectrum to be made available by auction only in 2.1 GHZ band which is suitable only for GSM operators, as CDMA operators do not have network equipment in 2.1 GHz and handsets which will work with the present 800 MHz. Such equipment and handsets are not likely to be available for a couple of years more at affordable prices.? a statement issued by the body said.
?This means the established GSM operators who are able to get 3G spectrum will have a two year lead time over CDMA operators creating consciously level playing field imbalances.? It noted that the body has been highlighting the issue of non compatibility of 800 MHz band with 2.1 GHz band, which was accepted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Currently there are an estimated 80 million subscribers of CDMA technology in the country. According to Auspi,? Trai made specific recommendations for CDMA operators for3G services. DoT in its 3G policy announced on November 3, 2007 accepted the Trai recommendation and provided that two carriers in 800 MHz band will be reserved for CDMA operators for launching EVDO.?
The statement said, ?however, in complete disregard to its own commitment and announced policy in November 2007 the DoT issued new licences with CDMA technology. As a result, no spectrum is available for 3G and in fact it is inadequate even to meet contractual commitment made to existing CDMA operators under 2G licences.?
While another statement issued by the body on Monday has once again urged the government to levy fee on the GSM players who have been allotted spectrum beyond the licence stipulated amount of 6.2 MHz, stating that this would help the government raise as much as an additional Rs 10,000 crore.