Tata Tele calls for equal spectrum

TTSL alleges that the COAI made an attempt to mislead a Govt panel on subscriber-based spectrum allocation, reports Arun Kumar.

The war for spectrum continues. Demanding equal spectrum for GSM and CDMA operators, Tata Teleservices Services (TTSL) alleged on Thursday that the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the GSM lobby, had made an attempt to mislead a government committee on subscriber-based spectrum allocation, headed by R Bandopadhyay.

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In a letter made available to Hindustan Times, Ashok Sud, president TTSL, has said that the issue of spectral utilisation efficiency for both CDMA and GSM are similar and it is the same definition, which has been adopted by both Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) in their reports. “In one of the presentation, COAI had strongly refuted the statement that CDMA is more efficient,” Sud said.

TTSL has stated that in its previous presentation, COAI had stated that GSM technology had the ability of deploying a higher number of Base Transceiver Stationns (BTS) in close proximity and achieve higher spectral utilization efficiency. Quoting the COAI’s presentation, dated November 26, TTSL said, “ In urban areas, their spectral utilisation efficiency can be higher than the CDMA."

Sud requested the government to do away with the allocation of spectrum based on subscriber norms, which he said are flawed and unique to India. “Such subscriber methodology encourage the operators to report higher subscriber numbers, which incidently leads to a security concern,” he said and added: "We have paid equal licence fees to the government and have the same terms and conditions to follow, hence to ensure a level playing field and fair competition, the quantum of spectrum allocation should be same for both GSM and CDMA."