Telcos oppose TRAI demand to surrender spectrum

19 August 2006

Mumbai: Telecom majors, including the state-owned MTNL, are opposing telecom sector regulator TRAI's directive to surrender unused spectrum to the government.

While TRAI said in a letter to the department of telecom that four mobile players, including MTNL, Bharti Telenet, Shyam Telecom and HFCL, have unsed spectrum at their disposal, MTNL sources said the PSU would not part with the unused spectrum (CDMA) as this was allocated to it for its WLL service.

While many other players had migrated to full mobility, being a PSU, it had to continue to offer limited mobility (WLL), MTNL pointed out. MTNL had also invested huge amounts in the network, although it did not have a large subscriber base for this service, he added.

TRAI has asked telecom companies with excess spectrum in 824-844 MHz paired with 869-889 MHz band, to make this available for 3G services in the country.

While TRAI wants MTNL to give up three carriers of the total seven it has been allocated, it wants Bharti Telenet to surrender two carriers in Madhya Pradesh. TRAI wants Shyam Telesystems to vacate two carriers in Rajasthan and HFCL to relinquish two carriers in Punjab.