Mittal seeks PM's help to end spectrum war

Sanjay Anand / TNN / May 9, 2006, 00:32 IST

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Bharti Enterprises CMD Sunil Mittal has stepped into the 'war of letters' on allocation of spectrum - radio frequency waves that carry voice and data to and from cellphones.

Mittal seeks PM's help to end spectrum war

NEW DELHI: Now, Bharti Enterprises CMD Sunil Mittal has stepped into the 'war of letters' that was started by Ratan Tata on allocation of spectrum - radio frequency waves that carry voice and data to and from your cellphones.
The quarrel involves two powerful cellphone lobbies - CDMA, led by Tatas and Reliance, and GSM which includes Bharti Airtel, BSNL and Hutch.Tata and the GSM industry leaders have been shooting letters to PM Manmohan Singh to enlist his support on thorny issues of spectrum.
GSM and CDMA operators have been fighting over policy issues impacting the allocation of spectrum, which is crucial for handling India's explosive cellphone growth without congesting network.
In his letter to PM, Mittal has sought Singh's help to end the "unnecessary and unhealthy debate which has once again erupted in the mobile telephony sector".

Unlike other letters from the GSM industry, which focussed on details of Tata's contentions, Mittal has taken a macro, global view of cellular telephony and conveyed that GSM is a world standard, CDMA is not.
"Today, the worldwide mobile base stands at approximately 2.3 billion customers, of which GSM has 1.8 billion customers. GSM and 3GSM have accounted for over 90% of all worldwide additions in 2005."
He says that GSM not only drives telecom growth worldwide, it also "protects consumer interest by ensuring interoperability across technologies".

Mittal says that he does not intend to "restrict spectrum availability to those who have chosen the non-standard technologies," but wants GSM and 3GSM should not get stifled because of misinformation.
He cautions that the mobile telephony sector has "already suffered enough due to the turbulent regulatory shifts in last few years."
Mittal's letter assumes significance in view of the fact that global association of GSM industry (GSMA) is going to hold its meeting next month in India.
The latest round of quarrel on spectrum erupted after Tata wrote to PM last month and objected to government guidelines that allocated more spectrum to GSM operators.
GSM firms, in turn, pointed out that CDMA operators have claimed themselves at various fora that their technology was more efficient and hence required less spectrum. Tata also raised objections to linking the allocation of spectrum to subscriber base of phone companies.
This started a strong rebuttal of Tata's stand - first, with GSM industry lobby group COAI and then Hutch chief Asim Ghosh shooting of letters to PM.
Besides, CDMA operators have been seeking 1900 MHz (US PCS) band for 3G (third generation) services that enable download of video clips, music, graphics and data onto cellphones. GSM operators meanwhile have been lobbying for 2.1 GHz adopted by GSM operators worldwide.

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