The tug of war that is being played out between Defence forces and DoT is for spectrum, a scarce resource that is essential for mobile phone services.
NEW DELHI: Even as the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are trying to hammer out the best deal for their respective domain, it is believed that there’s no “immediate” crisis in the country’s mobile telephony sector despite a spectrum crunch.
A DoT source told DNA Money, “The numbers game will continue for another 8 to 10 months, even in the current spectrum scenario.” He was referring to the mobile growth story witnessing 7-8 million per month increase in wireless subscriber numbers in the recent times.
The tug of war that is being played out between Defence forces and DoT is for spectrum, a scarce resource that is essential for mobile phone services.
The Defence side wants to vacate spectrum only when an alternate secure network with in-built encryption is provided by DoT. But, DoT is insisting that the Defence must start vacating spectrum as soon as possible, while it can set up the alternate secure network for Defence over a period of two years.
A DoT source said, “There’s no spectrum problem in rural areas, where teledensity is quite low.”
But, in metros, where mobile numbers are extremely high, more spectrum is required for better quality of service, he added.
Although India is all set to reach the target of 250 million phones ahead of time, one should keep in mind the next milestone of 500 million phones. “Unless adequate spectrum is provided soon, it would be a challenge to reach the target of 500 million phones by the end of 2010.”
The government set the target of 250 million phones by the end of 2007, and 500 million by 2010 end. Of the 250 million phones by 2007 end, 200 million were expected to be mobiles. As of end of August, India crossed the magic figure of 200 million mobile phones.
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