Himanshu Singh 19 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 (edited) Incumbent GSM operators - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular - have upped the ante against dual licence holders Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Tata Teleservices in the ongoing war for airwaves, and said that the latter generated poor returns to the government for the airwaves they hold. Dual licence holders have approval to offer mobile services on both GSM and CDMA technological platforms. All telcos share between 2-6% of their annual revenues to the government as spectrum usage charge. GSM operators say that they hold far lower airwaves when compared to RCOM and Tatas, but pay a much higher fee to use these airwaves. For instance, Airtel says that it holods 167 MHz of spectrum (the airwaves on which all mobile signals travel) across the country and paid Rs 986 crore as annual fee to use these airwaves when compared to Rs 179 crore by RCOM, which held 200.5 MHz of radio frequencies (GSM and CDMA combined). Airtel also says that while it as well as the Tatas held almost similar quantity of airwaves, the latter paid was paid only Rs 179.68 crore as annual spectrum usage charges. Ditto with Vodafone and Idea - calculation by these GSM operators state they shelled out Rs 770 core and Rs 406 crore respectively as the fee to use the airwaves despite them holding lesser amount of airwaves than RCOM and Tatas. GSM operators also add that the Department of Telecom's move in 2007 to overturn TRAI's recommendations, which had said that operators offering services on multiple technologies must pay the spectrum charges on the combined airwaves, is now causing the government huge losses. Incumbent GSM operators also want TRAI to impose a minimum amount that telcos will have to shell out for every MHz of radio frequencies they hold. This is because, they claim that RCOM and Tatas paid only Rs 18.71 crore and Rs 22.75 crore respectively for every MHz of radio frequencies they have when compared to Rs 116.64 crore for Bharti, Rs 98.73 crore for Vodafone and Rs 52.81 crore/MHz for Idea Cellular. In their defence, RCOM and Tatas have said that GSM operators were resorting to misrepresentation of facts while adding that 'the allegations on inefficient economic use of spectrum held by dual technology operators was bizarre and hides their (incumbent GSM players') mala fide intent to hoard spectrum far beyond what is permissible under the laws of the land'. Edited December 23, 2009 by sachinrocks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ravi_patent 28 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 so are u batting for coai (jus kidding)..let the mnp be implemented only then the picture emerges. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KanagaDeepan 1,084 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 This is due to mix up of CDMA spectrum + GSM spectrum calculation.. Say Airtel should check if Spectrum charges per MHz of Docomo with that of Airtel's charges, then only TRUTH will be revealed... Else another simple way is starting of CDMA service by Airtel, Vodafone & Idea :rofl_200: and use the advantages of CDMA/Dual technology... But they wont work in area of sub-par Rs80 ARPU field for sure and even if they try will glamorous offers, there will be no one to use their CDMA service They gave iPhone LOCKED for 36k Rs... Guess what they will offer for CDMA BB... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Himanshu Singh 19 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 @Ravi, No brother not batting for anyone. Just posted as I found this article a bit interesting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
manishag 17 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 well I too agree that RCDMA has very crapy implementation. it's running because of the Fiber Back bone which was laid by the Dheeru Bhai. if you go for the network topology other GSM operators are also not very good. they haven't managed the spectrum properly. in terms of network mismanagement i'll rank RCDMA 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 Will Reliance optically connect all their GSM towers and take it to #1 ?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Harshal 11 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 Aren't all GSM towers connected to the same optic network as the CDMA towers? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 They have installed GSM in all existing optically connected CDMA towers..Also they have many new GSM alone towers which are not optically connected.. so i feel once they optically connect those towers, then we get a much better network.. hope this happens.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
srk006 21 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 (edited) ^^^ I didn't get that point. If stand-alone GSM towers are not connected to the optic-network, then how does it work?? Could you explain it a bit. Edited December 23, 2009 by srk006 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Maulik.Parekh 34 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 Not necessary to connect towers optically , Nearby towers can communicate wirelessly ; This system helps improve network strength in urban areas where penetration at buildings is required. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Himanshu Singh 19 Report post Posted December 23, 2009 This is due to mix up of CDMA spectrum + GSM spectrum calculation.. Say Airtel should check if Spectrum charges per MHz of Docomo with that of Airtel's charges, then only TRUTH will be revealed... Else another simple way is starting of CDMA service by Airtel, Vodafone & Idea :rofl_200: and use the advantages of CDMA/Dual technology... But they wont work in area of sub-par Rs80 ARPU field for sure and even if they try will glamorous offers, there will be no one to use their CDMA service They gave iPhone LOCKED for 36k Rs... Guess what they will offer for CDMA BB... Come on yar, I am sure DoCoMo does not have even 30% of customers as compared to Airtel or even Reliance. So the return for Govt through levies and taxes per MHz of spectrum awarded to DoCoMO is surely lower than Airtel.I am sure Airtel adds more to Govt kitties per MHz of spectrum than DoCoMO.By the way the ET articles means this only when it talks of spectrum efficiency. You know what Airtel says? It says why did Rcomm and Tata not apply for GSM licenses when they were awarded for the first time? Why did they enter CDMA if they found it not lucrative enough? The fact is Rcomm and Tata comm took a conscious business decision to foray into CDMA services and not because GSM spectrum was not available to accomodate them. So to suggest: 1.That for level playing field/comparison the incumbent GSM telcos should foray into CDMA and 2 That low ARPUs of the two companies is due to CDMA technology is far fetched and fails to impress me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vvinayakpai 26 Report post Posted December 24, 2009 They have installed GSM in all existing optically connected CDMA towers..Also they have many new GSM alone towers which are not optically connected.. so i feel once they optically connect those towers, then we get a much better network.. hope this happens.. What is the advantage of optically connecting the GSM towers? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted December 24, 2009 ^^^ I didn't get that point. If stand-alone GSM towers are not connected to the optic-network, then how does it work?? Could you explain it a bit. they use conical antennas to connect towers.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted December 24, 2009 What is the advantage of optically connecting the GSM towers? Wired connection is better than wireless.. correct me if i am wrong.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
me_saket 73 Report post Posted December 24, 2009 yes and wired connection is costly also. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
