Trai Submits Recommendations on 3G

[abhay 0]

TRAI submits recommendations on 3G pricing, allocation

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI, has submitted its recommendations on pricing and allocation, reports CNBC-TV18.

In the immediate term, a total spectrum of 32.5 megahertz for immediate allocation will be available in 1.2 gigahertz, 450 and 800 mega hertz. TRAI Chairman, Nripendra Mishra also said that the services should be priced.

The recommendations on broadband wireless and spectrum management have been included. It also says that there would be base and auction price to allocate 3G spectrum.

"Our second reccomendation is that 3G is a standalone service, and cannot be considered an extension of 2G, and it should be priced," said Nripendra Misra, Chairman, TRAI.

Earlier today, Telecom Minister, Dayanidhi Maran said the government aims to launch 3G services by mid next year.

'The proces of introducing 3G services already initiated in India and it is expected that we should launch 3G services by the second half of 2007,' said Dayanidhi Maran, Minister, IT and Communication.

According to the recommendation, The spectrum will enable to reach 500 million subscribers by 2010. The spectrum for immediate allocation would be in 450 MHz, 800 MHz and 2.1 GHz.

The board will have the final say and will determine the road map for the future. The recommendation also says that the auction would not be a process of eliminating existing players. CDMA operators will have the option to choose spectrum allocation first

http://news.moneycontrol.com/india/news/bu...rticle/242627/0

Sunil Mittal hails TRAI's 3G recommendations

Leading mobile operator Bharti Airtel Limited on Wednesday welcomed TRAI's recommendations on 3G spectrum and said the company would roll out first 3G network-enabled services within the six months of getting a license.

"It is a coherent policy... This is not a piecemeal approach," Bharti Group Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Mittal told reporters here.

TRAI has suggested a base price formula for 3G spectrum acquisition along with auction route in the 2.1 GHz frequency band for GSM based services.

Bharti Airtel is offering GSM-based mobile services and has a pan-India presence. Currently, Bharti has a subscriber base of over 25 million and has announced plans to enter the rural India in a big way.

Mittal said with the new mechanism of 3G network the spectrum, which is short in availability, can be used efficiently and rural population would be the main beneficiary of new system.

"Overall, we are satisfied with the policy and we hope there will be a level playing field in the national spectrum policy to be announced by Department of Telecom on the basis of TRAI's recommendations," he said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2032836.cms

3G spectrum in 3 months: Govt

Within hours of announcement of TRAI's recommendations on spectrum allocation for 3G services, the government on Wednesday said it will come out with a policy for it in the next three months.

"We are looking into the details of TRAI's recommendations and will come out with a formalised report in three months to enable faster roll-out of 3G services in the country," Minister for Communications and IT Dayanidhi Maran told reporters.

He said TRAI is maintaining technology neutrality in the field and "since both GSM and CDMA technologies co-exist in India, we would also look into that."

Maran, earlier in the day, indicated that spectrum for next generation 3G mobile services would be priced and would be commercially launched in the second half of 2007.

"The process for 3G service has already been initiated in India and it is expected that we should be able to launch 3G services by the later half of 2007," he said.

The minister said the spectrum for 3G services need to be priced rightly keeping in mind the scarcity of spectrum and fiscal deficit of the country.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2032779.cms

Trai suggests Rs 80 cr base price for 3G

Telecom regulator Trai on Wednesday recommended to DoT, a maximum base price of Rs 80 crore for allocation of 3G spectrum to operators for launching next generation mobile services.

Announcing the recommendation, Trai Chairman Nripendra Misra today said, "Rs 80 crore has been fixed as base price for two metros of Bombay and Delhi, Rs 40 crore for Chennai and Kolkata and Rs 15 crore for category C circles."

Over and above the base price, the telecom operators will have to bid for the spectrum.

Going by base price alone, Trai said the government would collect a minimum of Rs 1,400 crore for a pan-India spectrum allocation.

Trai has recommended three sets of frequency bands - 450 mhz, 800 mhz and 2.1 ghz.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2032657.cms

they also submitted something on WIMAX !! i read it in todays economic times << cant locate that one right now ?? any one ??

[Arun 795]

Yes, Trai has recommended auctioning 200 MHz for Wimax.

3G spectrum auction with quota for CDMA

Business Standard

New Delhi September 28, 2006

A total 32.5 MHz will be available for 3G services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended auctioning radio frequencies for 3G (third-generation) telecom services at a reserve price of Rs 1,050 crore to companies seeking to offer nationwide high-speed Internet and streaming video.

The base price for spectrum in cities like Mumbai and Delhi and Category A telecom circles is Rs 80 crore; in cities like Chennai and Kolkata and Category B circles Rs 40 crore; and in all other cities Rs 15 crore.

The government will net at least Rs 6,000 crore in an auction that delinks spectrum allocation from the subscriber base of telecom companies.

Spectrum will be allocated in three bands: 25 MHz will go to five operators — each requires 5 MHz to offer these services — in the 2.1 GHz band; 1.25 MHz each to the two CDMA operators in the 800 MHz band (there are only two CDMA players in most states, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices); and 5 MHz on the 450 MHz band to one CDMA operator.

CDMA operators are free to bid both in the 2.1 GHz and the 450 MHz bands but they will be allocated spectrum only in one.

Pricing of these two bands is linked to the auction in the 2.1 GHz band. CDMA operators will pay the same as the second-highest GSM bidder. And if there is more than one claimant in the 450 MHz band, the reserve price will be half of that arrived at in the 2.1 GHz band.

Another rider is that if the highest bid is a quarter more than the lowest, the lowest bidder has to raise its bid to 75 per cent of the winning bid.

“A total of 32.5 MHz was available for allocation within the next 6-9 months. We expect (3G) services to begin from June 2007,” Trai Chairman Nripendra Misra said while announcing the recommendations.

He hoped that the allocated spectrum would be enough for the next two years and said Trai would recommend freeing up more spectrum for those who lose out in this auction.

Trai has also recommended auctioning 200 MHz for broadband wireless access services like Wimax and has proposed a national frequency management board to oversee spectrum availability and its efficient use.

The telecom industry is divided on the recommendations. “I had ideally expected the base price to be lower, but we can live with it,” said Sunil Mittal, chairman, Bharti Airtel.

“They are going back on what they said during the unified licence settlement: that 2G was an extension of 3G. The reserve price is absurd, and I cannot understand the logic of CDMA spectrum being priced lower than ours,” said the CEO of a rival GSM operator.

“Trai’s recommendations are fair to all participants and are progressive. We are happy that the regulator has maintained an evidently technology-neutral approach,” said Darryl Green, CEO, Tata Teleservices.

But there are problems CDMA operators may come up against. “Operating 3G services on 450 MHz is a problem because we do not have dual-band phones that work both in 450 MHz and in 800 MHz (the band in which CDMA operates in India),” an executive with a CDMA equipment company said.

[abhay 0]

hey by this time next year we probably could have wimax if everything works as planned

Edited September 28, 2006 by abhay

[Arun 795]

Telecos split over TRAI recommendations

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

CIOL

The base price for auction of 3G spectrum higher for telecos; GSM lobby unhappy with recommendations

The GSM lobby seems to be unhappy with the 3G spectrum recommendations submitted by the Telecom regulator and sees it in favour of the CDMA operators.

Bharti Airtel said that the reserve price quoted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) seemed to be very high for the operators.

The base price for auctioning of spectrum for 3G services has been recommended at Rs 80 crore for Delhi and Mumbai, Rs 40 crore for Chennai and Kolkata and Rs 15 crore for other C category cities.

“The reserved price however seems very high, even if we were to consider the limited available spectrum. For those interested in countrywide 3G licences, the reserved price would be more than Rs.1000 crores, which is a serious disincentive especially when it comes to rural penetration. We appeal to the DoT to review and seriously lower the threshold recommended,” Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

Spice Telecom feels the base price for the spectrum quoted is “too high” for the operators. “If the price for allocation of spectrum is high, the cost of the service will also go to customers. We feel the base price is quite high for all the telecos,” H.N. Nanani, chief executive officer, Spice Communications said.

He also said that Spice will be bidding for the 3G spectrum in Punjab and Karnataka. Spice has applied for a pan-India license this year.

According to industry experts it is going to be a heated debate between the GSM operators, and the Government and the CDMA operators on the other side.

“Trai had done a balancing act by announcing the auction of the 3G spectrum. If the regulator had recommended allocation of spectrum free, there would have been no solution on allocation. Currently the government can allocate spectrum only to five operators and it would have been impossible to select the lucky five,” telecom analysts say.

Even though the regulator’s recommendations are considered ‘logically correct’, industry sources said that the recommendations have been in favour of the CDMA operators. The Ratan Tata and DoT spat over the spectrum allocation policy had landed in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with DoT defending the policy in its report to the PMO. Tata was the only industry player who has proposed a charge for spectrum. In May 2005, he created a ripple in the industry by proposing a Rs 1,500 crore fee for 3G spectrum.

Darryl Green, CEO- Tata Teleservices welcomed the Trai's recommendations. “We are happy that the regulator has maintained an evidently technology neutral approach. The recommendation on pricing and auction of spectrum clearly establishes that spectrum is recognized as a scarce resource and must be utilized efficiently,” Green said.

He also said that the Trai's proposal on vacating spectrum to re-farm GSM operations and in the process allocate additional spectrum, in the 800MHz band, for CDMA players is a much needed and eagerly awaited solution.

However, telecom major Reliance did not remain as a mere spectator on the debate on spectrum allocation. The Anil Ambani Dhirubhai group had suggested a hybrid model for 3G spectrum fee, according to which an entry fee of Rs 150 crore, Rs 100 crore and Rs 50 crore was proposed for Category A, B and C circles respectively, making it a total of Rs 300 crore if a player wants to offer 3G services Pan India.

The two industry associations, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI) refused to comment on the recommendations and said that they would soon be coming up with suggestions on it.

Meanwhile, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), which is offering its services in two metros, said that it would follow the DoT guidelines.

[Arun 795]

Sunil Jain: Second thoughts on 3G

Business Standard

Sunil Jain / New Delhi - October 09, 2006

This is the ultimate irony. The country’s cellular mobile operators who’re arguing that 3G licences are not a new service, and therefore cannot be auctioned, are essentially relying upon a change in their licence conditions made at the time when Reliance and the Tatas gained a backdoor entry into the mobile telephony market in 2003. Something they objected to at that point of time! Under the original licence, the only mobile telephony that could be provided was a 2G one. It was only when the government decided to allow the fixed-line telecom providers to provide full-blown mobility using CDMA technology that the Unified Access Services Licence (UASL) dropped the term 2G and the scope got broadened to “provision of all types of access services”, which, you could argue, includes 3G services as well.

Which is probably why when the Prime Minister’s Office asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for its view in December 2004, the DoT said that under the UASL, 3G services were part of 2G licences, and that the only issues that needed to be addressed related to the allocation of this 3G spectrum and the criterion for this.

In other words, had the GSM cellular players (Hutch/Airtel, etc) got their way and stopped the CDMA-based Reliance/Tatas’ back-door entry in full-blown mobility, they wouldn’t have had a case for opposing the telecom regulator’s (Trai’s) recommendation that 3G services be considered a new service!

But whether you agree that 3G spectrum needs to be bid for or that it should be given free like the 2G one, what’s troubling is that in a sector where most agree the regulatory system is the best, the regulator should do a complete U-turn on 3G policy. In May last year, the regulator was very clear that 3G was simply an extension of 2G and that it could not be priced. Today, the same regulator, with a new chief though, has no hesitation in saying 3G is a separate service, that while 2G is essentially about voice traffic, 3G is really about data. Trai has tried to justify this by saying there was a serious spectrum crunch in 2005 and, since it didn’t look as if any more 2G spectrum would be available soon, the 2005 recommendation on 3G was a response to this.

That’s a feeble excuse since there has been little change in the spectrum position since May 2005. The proposal to get the defence forces to vacate an additional 25 MHz of 2G spectrum—this is enough to service around 50-60 mn new subscribers—in the 1,800 MHz frequency band, which is going to happen now, was first agreed to by a Group of Ministers in September 2003. And, in May 2005, Trai reiterated that this was to be made available by December of that year.

It is equally unclear how Trai justifies its changed view on 2G spectrum. In May 2005, it said spectrum vacated by the defence should be given to the GSM firms; the current view is that GSM firms should vacate some spectrum in the 900 MHz band and this be given to the CDMA lot! Though this loss is to be made up in the 1,800 MHz spectrum, this will cut into the GSM lot’s fresh allocation since only 25 MHz is available.

In other words, it will take a while before a genuinely robust regulatory mechanism that’s independent of personalities develops. That’s good or bad news, depending upon where you stand.

Though sensible on the whole, Trai’s latest 3G recommendations still have some inconsistencies. First, the rollout obligations specified is a bad idea since the DoT has rolled these back in the past in other services like fixed-line and long-distance telephony. Second, the suggestion that CDMA players who want spectrum in the 800 MHz frequency match the bid of the second-bidder in the 2,100 MHz is unfair. If Reliance/Tata, the CDMA lot, want to offer 3G services in the 800MHz band why should they pay less than what Airtel/Hutch (the GSM lot) pay when they bid for spectrum in the 2,100 MHz band?

The argument given is that, to do 3G services in the 800 MHz band, the CDMA lot will have to dedicate 1.25 MHz (called a “carrier” in jargon) to only data communication and so, if there aren’t enough 3G customers, this is a dead loss—the GSM lot, in contrast, can use their 3G spectrum to provide voice services to existing 2G subscribers as well. True, but the CDMA lot needs to buy less spectrum than the GSM lot, so they save there.

While Trai has chosen not to disturb the existing practice of giving 2G spectrum free, it will have to apply its mind here eventually, since this prevents its proper utilisation. An example will make this clear. If Reliance or the Tatas want to do 3G CDMA services in the 800 MHz band, they have to buy one more “carrier” (by matching the second-bid in the 2,100 MHz band). They can, however, do this even today by releasing one of their existing “carriers” in this frequency band, but under the new 3G policy, they have to buy a new “carrier”. But if they buy a new “carrier” here, they cannot do 3G GSM (like Reliance is supposed to be inclined to do) in the 2,100 MHz band. This is illogical, but the reason for it is obvious—if the GSM firms have to pay for their 3G spectrum, why should the CDMA chaps get it for free?

A fair enough point, but it ensures the economy’s making sub-optimal choices. The sooner the pricing of 2G spectrum is discussed, the better.

[GSV13 0]

Its all messed up!!!

However i am eagerly waiting for 3g in cdma i.e. EVDO with speed bursting as high as 2 mbps compared to it

3g of gsm players with just 384kbps speed is just a hole in name of 3g.

[Arun 795]

Anil Ambani looking at Pan India play on 3G

2006-10-31 20:04 Source : MoneyControl.com

Anil Ambani says it will be challenging to make a business case for 3G given TRAI's recommendations. This is the first official comment from the company on the 3G recommendations. CNBC-TV18 reports.

Addressing an analyst concall on the company's quarterly numbers, Anil Ambani said that high license fees coupled with infrastructure costs could make 3G rollout a challenging proposition. However, Ambani was quick to add that the company was looking at a nationwide play on 3G.

If TRAI's recommendations are accepted by the government, then an operator will have to pay about Rs 1400 crore for a Pan India 3G rollout.