MTNL unlikely to surrender 900MHz spectrum

This, as company does not have any unused or excess spectrum with it

State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is unlikely to surrender spectrum in the 900MHz and 800MHz bands as the company does not have any unused or excess spectrum with it.

If MTNL does not surrender spectrum, it would be difficult for the government to follow the recommendation of the Telecom regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that said full quantity of spectrum in the 900 MHz band should be auctioned to accommodate more than three operators in one circle.

Trai has also recommended that there should not be any reservation in the 900MHz band of spectrum for the incumbent players and stated that they should vacate the quantity held and win back through bidding. Trai has also stated that the full quantity of spectrum in the 900MHz band should be auctioned to accommodate more than three operators in one circle.

“We do not have any unused spectrum, and the renewal for the 900MHz band is coming up for renewal only in 2017. We do not see any reason for surrendering the spectrum (in 900MHz band),” said MTNL chairman and managing director A K Garg.

Also, he added, there is no need for renewal (or going through refarming) before 2017. MTNL, which operates in the Delhi and Mumbai telecom zones, has 6.2MHz of spectrum in the 900MHz band in each of the circles.

Earlier this week, GSM telcos lobby Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has suggested that the government should get 1.2MHz of excess spectrum in the of 900MHz band from MTNL allowing it to keep 5MHz to offer its services.

According to COAI, the government should reserve 5 MHz of spectrum in the 900MHz band for the two existing private operators in the Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata circles, where licences are coming for renewal next year, and the operators would go for refarming and pay in line with market-determined rates fixed through an auction. Spectrum beyond 5 MHz would be surrendered and made available for the open auction.

According to COAI’s calculation, the government would get 6MHz of spectrum from incumbent telcos (beyond 5 MHz each) in Delhi and Mumbai, and MTNL should vacate 1.2 MHz of excess spectrum, and there is an additional 0.3 MHz lying unallocated.

The GSM lobby added the government should also retrieve 2.5MHz of spectrum, which is lying unused in each circle from MTNL and BSNL in the 800MHz band to allocate that as the extended GSM band for the GSM operators.

 

“There is no spectrum lying unused with us. We do offer CDMA service and if we surrender 800MHz spectrum, how will we serve the CDMA subscribers,” said Garg. However, he added, as a Government promoted company, it will have to follow Government’s decisions.

 

According to TRAI data, MTNL has just 4.5 million mobile subscribers till June 2013, of which CDMA users would be just a few lakhs. It had just 24 lakh CDMA subscribers at the end of October last year.