[by Cerius Shah] The DOT played rebel rebel to the court disputes regarding the allocation of GSM spectrum to Reliance by giving the CDMA operator 4.4mhz of GSM love in 14 circles. Aircel, Idea and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) were granted spectrum for 4, 2 and 7 circles respectively in which they already hold licenses. Tata has also been cleared for GSM spectrum, no word yet on circles. Letters of Intent have been given to 8 new telecom aspirants, no word on their names either. This ET report states that RCom is going to reduce fares by 30% in comparison to current GSM operators. Expect number portability, which has been cleared but not actioned, to begin with a bang as well. Regardless of all the telco cat fights, the entry of Rcom, TATA and the LOI’s to the 8 aspirants is good news for VAS and the end consumer. Vodafone has been recently ramping up their VAS offerings and marketing efforts. Both Rcom and TATA have been using the handset bundle model for their CDMA offerings and could use that as a competitive advantage for selling to the bottom of the pyramid. Damn, this belt is getting tight. Reliance Communications had 37.8 million wireless subscribers at end-October. Its shares ended 2.5 percent lower at 793.50 rupees on Friday.
Nikhil adds Earlier, Moneycontol.com had reported that Letters of Intent (LoIs) had been granted to Unitech, Shippingstop.com (allegedly, Essar) and Datacom for pan-India operators. Spice Tele has got an LOI for four circles. Applications from Parsvnath, Indiabulls and Cheetah have been rejected by DoT, while Bycell, Allianz Infra and Infra have not been granted LoIs. Readers should note that LoIs will be converted into licenses on the payment of a license fee (Rs. 1650 crore for 22 circles); since spectrum allocation is linked to license allotment, expect applicants to rush to deposit the fees, for earlier allocation of spectrum. Details and an analysis of this at Moneycontrol.com. Please note that there’s been no formal announcement from the DoT regarding the allocation, and the information is source based.
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