Four GSM Operators Allowed To Test 3G In India

Well, it’s happening.
CNBC-TV18 reports that limited 3G spectrum has been allocated to four GSM players for testing – Bharti Airtel, Hutch, MTNL and BSNL. The four companies will test the services within a limited spectrum, around 1000 times less than that which is expected to be vacated by the defense. TRAI recommendations on pricing and allocation of 3G are due end of this month, and the DoT will have final say. [Source: moneycontrol.com]
Domain-B adds that this allocation has been made only for one month. Earlier today, Times of India had carried a story quoting a Ministry of IT & Communications notice, which named “only BSNL as the receipient of 5 + 5 MHz spectrum in the 2 GHz band for carrying out experiments in Pune, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Coimbatore.”
What this does, is give the four players, two of them PSUs, a clear head start over the others, especially the CDMA operators. There’s more bad news for CDMA operators: according to Business Standard, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Infocomm and Shyam Telecom may be asked to surrender excess CDMA spectrum. But there is hope too. A Financial Express story quotes a DoT official who says that if Reliance asks for “spectrum on the 800 Mhz to carry out trial for EVDO (a version of 3G service for CDMA)”, the proposal will be considered. No word from the CDMA operators yet.

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