The spectrum signals from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the ministry of defence are not in sync with each other.
DoT says vacation to begin by June 2008, defence says it may take two years
NEW DELHI: The spectrum signals from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the ministry of defence are not in sync with each other.
In Barcelona, where a telecom summit is on, DoT secretary Siddharth Behura said on Tuesday that the defence forces will start vacating some of its unused spectrum as early as June, which can be further allocated to the telcos.
But defence ministry sources have reiterated that no spectrum will be vacated unless an alternate fibre optic communication network is set up for all the three —army, navy and air force.
Estimates suggest that building a secure fibre optic network for the army, navy and air force could take up to two years.
The ruling UPA government’s term would come to an end in mid-2009, which is little more than a year away. Sources, however, added that the scenario would change if the two ministries (communications and defence) reach an agreement on spectrum vacation, irrespective of when the optic fibre network for army, navy and air force is set up.
Fearing a spectrum crunch, Vodafone chairman Arun Sarin has already said that his company may look at acquiring new licencees in India to meet the spectrum needs of Vodafone Essar.
Sarin hinted at the possibility of buying spectrum from the market through new acquisitions, if the Centre was unable to allocate further spectrum for the expansion needs of Vodafone Essar.
In 2007, UK-based Vodafone acquired a controlling stake in Hutch Essar to form Vodafone Essar.
Spectrum is a scarce natural resource essential for mobile telephony. As the defence ministry is believed to have some unused spectrum, it had indicated its willingness to give away around 45 MHz to 50 MHz (including 2G and 3G) to the DoT more than two years ago.
While earlier, the defence ministry was agreeable to the idea of an alternative fibre optic network only for the air force, it later revised its view. That is, DoT must provide an alternate fibre optic network for all three-army, navy and air force—-so that defence could vacate some of its unused spectrum.
Meanwhile, the DoT issued 121 letters of intent (LoIs) to nine players, many of them new in the telecom sector, in January. But, they are in queue for spectrum. Some of these new players are being targeted for acquisition by bigger telcos, it is learnt.
CDMA major Reliance Communications, which got permission to offer GSM services across the country under dual technology norms, got the necessary start-up spectrum recently.
The new players who got LoIs were Unitech group companies (22 circles), Swan (13 circles), Datacom from the Videocon stable (22 circles), S Tel (6 circles), and Loop Telecom (21 circles).
Loop (earlier named Shippingstop Dot Com) is a Ruia group-owned company. Currently, Ruia group’s Essar runs BPL Mobile in Mumbai, and Essar is Vodafone’s partner for Vodafone Essar.
A pan-India telecom licence costs a service provider Rs1,650 crore.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}