Along with the 3G spectrum, auction took place for
BWA (Broad band wireless access) spectrum (4G spectrum) in 2010. BSNL and
Infotel ( Subsequently acquired by Reliance Industries Limited) got the BWA(4G)
for all the circles. The American Company Qualcomm got it for 4 circles.
Aircel, Airtel, Tikona and Augere companies got it for 2, 4, 4, and 1 circles
respectively. For the BWA spectrum for all the circles BSNL and Infotel paid Rs
8000 crore each, to the Government.
Thus BSNL and Infotel got the 4G spectrum for all
the circles. But BSNL faced a problem. It was allotted 2.6 GHz band while all
others were allotted 2.3 GHz band. The band allotted to the BSNL is suitable
for Wi-Max technology only and it requires more investment since costly
equipment is needed for it. It gives less physical coverage. But the the band allotted for the private operators is
suitable for Wimax technology as well as
the LTE (Long Term Evolution) platform which is the upcoming , highly potential and competitive platform and it requires
less investment. This LTE is the 4G spectrum. The commitment of the Government to give
extensive coverage of wireless broadband in rural areas will suffer since it
will be more costly with this band of BWA spectrum allotted to BSNL. Thus the
BWA spectrum band allotted to BSNL will be loss making in rural areas and
cannot with stand the competition in the urban areas. This makes it difficult
for BSNL to survive in the competition. BSNL wrote to DoT to surrender the BWA
spectrum it got in all other circles except 4 circles and it was agreed in
principle by DoT.
Now the RIL (Reliance Industries Limited) is
planning to start 4G services using the BWA spectrum in the quality band
allotted to it. It will provide high capacity wireless broadband 4 G services that
will have a speed of 50-100 Mbps in testing, which is 3 times higher than the
fastest 3G services. RIL will invest Rs 25,000 crore in the first two years for rolling out its 4G network through out the country. Its
plan is to provide video services with high speed and dead cheap cost and to
develop platform-neutral technology to stream high speed content (video and
data) on your 4 screens-mobile, computer/tablet, TV and bill boards (Outdoor
advertisement structures on traffic routes). The owner of the RIL is Mukesh
Ambani and is talking with Rcom (Reliance Communications) owned by his brother
Anil Ambani to see whether RIL can use the well established network of RCom to
provide broadband services as well as to provide voice calls. RIL already got
preferential access to all of the Network 18’s TV, Internet and digital content
across all languages. It is also talking with other media and entertainment
companies like UTVsoftware (Walt Disney’s
Indian venture) for online gaming and
entertainment content. It acquired 38.5%
in Extrmarks Education, a company focussed on school education and digital
learning. It is learnt that it is
planning to bundle data services at about 10 paise per GB, which is one tenth
of the current 3G prices. It is also learnt that it is planning to bundle this
with entry level tablets(small hand held computer/mobile phone) powered by
Google’s Android operating system that will cost Rs 3000-8000.
While RIL acquired BWA spectrum for giving 4G
services all over India, Airtel, Vodafone,Qualcomm, Aircel, Tikona as said
above got BWA (4G) spectrum for a few circles only and hence will not have pan
India presence. For that matter, in case of 3G spectrum also, the Vodafone,
Airtel and Idea do not have it in all the circles. Each of them has the 3G
spectrum in some circles only. But they signed among themselves an illegal
intracircle roaming so that each of them can provide 3G services all over India
even in the circles where they do not have the 3G spectrum, by allowing the
subscriber of the non-3G holding operator in the circle to roam on the 3G
network of the partner having 3G spectrum in the concerned circle. Recently the
DoT issued notice to them to terminate these illegal intra circle roaming
agreements. They immediately filed a petition before TD SAT (Telecom Disputes
Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) and got stay.
The Airtel, Vodafone and some other private
operators have taken 4G (BWA) spectrum for some circles only on the assumption
that they can provide the 4G services in other circles by similar intra circle
roaming agreements. If the intra circle 3G roaming agreements resorted to by
these private operators is held as illegal by the TD SAT finally, their 3G
roaming agreements have to be terminated and they also cannot resort to such
intra circle roaming agreements for 4G services.
Hence hectic pressure is there on the Government to
allow spectrum sharing in the new telecom policy to be announced in a few
months so that they can go for the intra circle roaming agreements after
announcement of the new policy and provide the 3G/4G services throughout the
country including in the circles where they do not have the 3G/4G spectrum. The
draft new telecom policy proposed by the Communications Minister already agreed
to allow spectrum sharing and trading.
Thus it is clear that there is a battle going on
among the telecom services companies on the issue of 4G spectrum also pending
the finalisation of the new telecom policy. While the Goveernment has damaged
BSNL by allotting poor quality BWA spectrum that compelled it to propose for
surrendering it, it allotted quality BWA spectrum to the private operators. But
among thee private operators, the RIL purchased the BWA spectrum for all the
circles where as other private operators took it for some circles only on the
assumption that they can provide 4G services in all the circles by the intra
circle roaming agreements. Therefore now thae battle going on the issue of 4G
spectrum is:
a) BSNL
surrenders its BWA spectrum in all circles except 4, and hence not going to
start the services in all other circles except the said 4 circles. It is
looking for early refunding of the amount paid by it for the BWA spectrum.
b) RIL
has purchased the BWA (4G) spectrum for all the circles by paying Rs 8000
crores and going ahead with its plans to rollout its net work and start giving
the 4G services by the end of this year.
c) Airtel,
Vodafone etc are struggling to see that their intra circle roaming agreements
are not cancelled so that they can extend 4G services all over the country even
in the circles where they do not have the 4G spectrum.
d) Government,
as the well wisher of the private operators, has already announced spectrum
sharing in its draft new telecom policy and intending to allow it in the new
policy to be finalized in a few months, so that, atleast from the date after
the announcement of the new policy, the private operators who have not taken
3G/4G spectrum for all the circles will be allowed to provide 3G/4G services by
sharing the 3G/4G spectrum of the other operatos who are having the spectrum in
the concerned circles.
e) Till
the policy is finalized, the private operators like RIL having spectrum in all
circles will be against intra circle roaming and they will pressurize the
Government accordingly.
f)
The trade unions of BSNL and MTNL are fighting for cancellation of the intra
circle 3G roaming agreements and demanding that the spectrum sharing should not
be allowed in the new policy.
కామెంట్లు లేవు:
కామెంట్ను పోస్ట్ చేయండి