Bharti, Idea hit back at CDMA firms on spectrum use

The ongoing battle between GSM and CDMA operators over spectrum utilisation took a new turn today as Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular used visitor location register (VLR) data released by the regulator, which captures active subscribers in a network, to nail the alleged canards spread by the incumbent CDMA operators.

“With close to 90 per cent active customers for Bharti and 88 per cent for Idea, we have maintained high reporting standards to serve genuine information needs, rather than spurious propaganda needs,” Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular said in a joint statement.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recently brought out a VLR report, which captures the number of customers who regularly use their mobile phone numbers. The report reveals that only 70 per cent of the total number of 687 million subscribers are active on their networks.

Leading GSM service providers had the maximum number of active subscribers. Bharti Airtel has a high percentage of active subscribers at 89.3 per cent, but Spice, now acquired by Idea, has the maximum percentage at 89.9 per cent. Idea has 87.8 per cent, Vodafone has 74.9 per cent active subscribers.

Attacking the CDMA players, the statement adds: “The report exposes the double standards of these operators. They are the ones who have inflated their own numbers as evidenced in the report of their VLR records establishing a very low active customer base, both for their long established CDMA operations and the relatively new GSM operations.”

This is reflected in the numbers. TTSL, which also operates in the GSM space, has active subscription in almost half of the established players, which stands at 44 per cent and 46 per cent for their CDMA and GSM operations, respectively.