Airtel lets go MP CDMA spectrum

Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said that it has shifted its 20,000 CDMA subscribers in Madhya Pradesh to the GSM platform and surrendered the spectrum to the government.

Bharti Airtel had received the CDMA spectrum in 1997. The surrender comes as the Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked telecom operators having additional spectrum allotted prior to 1997, to surrender as part of its spectrum channelling plan. It has also asked non-telecom operators to also vacate spectrum so that it can be used by other CDMA operators.

A company release said after Bharti got the Unified Access Service License (UASL), it had converted its cellular license to UASL. The licence granted in 1997 to offer fixed line services was surrendered to the DoT. However, it had to retain the CDMA frequency as it had around 20,000 subscribers on the platform.

The operator was directed to pay the spectrum charges based on the combined GSM and CDMA spectrum allocated, which otherwise were to be charged separately, it argued.

But its entry fee for surrender of fixed line license was not refunded, the release added.

Bharti Airtel has migrated the subscriber to the GSM technology at its own cost. Manoj Kohli, president Bharti Airtel said, "We have completed the process of migrating our customers from the CDMA-based WLL services to the GSM technology."