A commission within the Indian Department of Telecommunications recently finalized a draft for a new spectrum policy. The draft recommends that spectrum should continue to be allocated to operators on the basis of the number of subscribers. For this allocation system the department works with the principle that as CDMA technology is more efficient than GSM technology, a frequency band would allow for more CDMA subscriptions, and therefore CDMA operators need more than double the subscription additions which are needed for GSM operators to acquire more spectrum. This principle is heavily opposed by CDMA operators.

 

Furthermore, the draft states that there should be no entry fees to provide 3G services, which is opposed by the Ministry of Finance. It also proposes to use the 2Ghz band for 3G and to not open up the 1900 Mhz band, which will continue to be used by the Indian army. However, 3G operators currently have no equipment to provide 3G services in this band. In many other countries, the 1900 Mhz band is allocated for 3G services, and therefore equipment for use in this band is widely available.

 

The draft will need to be approved by the Department of Telecommunications.