The Telecom Commission’s decision to shift incumbent GSM players from 900 Mhz band has brought cheer to new players and worry to the old.
The Cellular Operators Association of India, which represents old GSM players, said that re-farming is against consumer, industry as well as the national interest.
“The decision is the death knell for the industry that has been going through rough times due to harsh, unreasonable and irrational decisions of the Government on spectrum reserve price, spectrum usage charge and one-time licence fee,” the COAI said.
“The spectrum re-farming is tantamount to forcible dislodgment of a legitimate occupant and goes against licence terms and conditions. Networks are designed around frequency bands, not the other way round! There is no precedence in the world, where any telecom network, let alone some of the world’s biggest telecom networks, has had its frequency band uprooted,” it added.
Will hit connectivity
COAI said there is a risk of reduction in geographic coverage by as much as 40 per cent. Such a reduction of coverage is estimated to directly impact the connectivity to about 70-80 million subscribers.
“Re-allocation of more efficient 900 MHz (megahertz) spectrum through auctions would make investments of over Rs 1.5 lakh crore redundant, lead to protracted disputes, disrupt services for hundreds of millions of mobile customers and translate to higher tariffs for end customers,” COAI said.
But new GSM players welcomed the decision taken by the Telecom Commission. “Most of the 900 MHz spectrum is held by three private operators - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea – for almost a decade without making any additional payment and hence they are likely to complain bitterly about this decision.”
The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India said re-farming would provide an equal opportunity to all operators to acquire 900 Mhz band through auctions in technically optimum chunks rather than a few operators hoarding it for perpetuating their monopoly,” it added.
AUSPI represents the interest of Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications which got into the GSM market in 2008 on the 1800 Mhz band.