Reliance Communications is all set to be an all-India Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile telephony player.
NEW DELHI: Reliance Communications is all set to be an all-India Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile telephony player.
During an analyst meet on Thursday, after announcing the third quarter financial results, RCom chairman Anil Ambani said that the company had just got the government approval to start CDMA service in the remaining circles of Assam and North-East.
Currently, RCom operates CDMA service across the country (in 21 circles) barring Assam and North-East. Ambani also said that RCom would get a refund of around Rs 112 crore from the Department of Telecom (DoT) soon, as the company had paid in excess for licences to start GSM services.
Although the group’s Reliance Telecom runs GSM service in eight circles, it had recently paid Rs 1,650 crore for operating GSM across the country. Rs 1,650 crore is the licence fee for all-India service under the Unified Access Service Licence (UASL).
While stating that the company’s nationwide GSM rollout would take off within a year, Ambani gave a capex estimate of $6 billion (Rs 24,000 crore) for the financial year ending March 2009. For the current financial year ending March 2008, the revised capex figure is around $5 billion.
On sharing of its tower infrastructure with other players, Ambani indicated that some agreements are expected soon with “the newer entrants”. DoT had recently issued 121 letters of intent (LoIs) to a total of nine (new and existing) telcos.
Meanwhile, Ambani reiterated that existing GSM players have extra spectrum, but declined to comment more on that as the issue is sub judice. When CDMA major RCom was allowed to operate GSM services under dual technology recently, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) representing GSM players had moved court.
“All telecom operators will like to get as much spectrum as they can. And, we are no different,” he added.
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