Mobile cos get more spectrum

By agencies   |   Friday, 31 March 2006, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The department of telecommunications (DoT) has released new guidelines that increases the limit of spectrum each GSM and CDMA operator can claim based on their subscriber base. The move comes as a major boost to the mobile industry, which is adding as many as 5 million subscribers per month. While the total spectrum was capped at 10 Mhz for GSM and 5 Mhz for CDMA players, it has now been raised to 15 Mhz for GSM and 7.5 Mhz for CDMA for 2.1 million subscribers each. According to the new criteria, a GSM operator will get spectrum beyond 10 Mhz in two tranches — from 10 Mhz to 12.4 Mhz (when it crosses 1 million subscribers) and 12.4 Mhz to 15 Mhz (when it crosses 1.6 million). The CDMA operator will get beyond 5 Mhz to 6.25 Mhz and then to 7.25 Mhz. The new criterion comes into effect immediately. It has, however, not taken into account the demand of CDMA operators that equal spectrum be allotted to GSM and CDMA operators for the same number of subscribers. For Delhi and Mumbai, while a GSM operator could get only 10 Mhz for 1 million subscribers, now it can claim a total of 15 Mhz for 2.1 million subscribers.