Trai extends deadline for sending views on 4G services

Heeding to the request of telecom industry, the regulator Trai today extended, for the second time, the deadline for sending comments on advanced mobile wireless broadband services, or 4G, till November 30.

The regulator has also extended the time for submitting counter comments on the paper 'IMT-Advanced Mobile Wireless Broadband Services' till December 7, from November 7 earlier.

"Keeping in view the request of the stakeholders for extension of time for sending their comments and also the importance of the issue, all the stakeholders may now submit their written comments by  November 30, 2011, and counter comments by December 7, 2011," Trai said in a statement today.

IMT-Advanced systems or 4G are latest mobile technologies that include improved performance capabilities that go beyond those of IMT-2000 (3G).

Earlier, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had extended the deadline for sending comments and counter comments on the paper to October 31 and November 7, from September 20 and 27 respectively.

Trai, on August 19, issued a pre-consultation paper on the subject for seeking stakeholder comments.

Key issues raised in the consultation paper are suitable spectrum bands, block size of spectrum to be auctioned, maximum spectrum permitted to bidder, eligibility criteria for bidding, roll out obligations, spectrum usage charges, quality of service parameters, security issues, among others.

According to the International Telecommunication Union, the apex global body for telecom related subjects, the targeted peak data transfer speed for IMT-Advance technology will be up to 100 Megabit per second for high mobility and 1 Gigabit per second for low mobility.

This theoretically means a person can download at least an hour length normal video within a minute while moving at a speed close to 100 kilometer per hour.

Last week telecom minister Kapil Sibal said that he expects 4G services will be launched in second half of 2012.

"We have large capacities in spectrum to move forward in 4G which is hopefully going to be launched towards end of next year. Later half of 2012...We should be ready to launch 4G," Sibal has said at an event.