New telecom players to get spectrum in 4 more circles

Within days of the Delhi High Court giving a clean chit to the Union government in the spectrum issue, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is all set to allocate start-up spectrum to new players in four more circles.

DoT has proposed to allocate spectrum in four more circles — Maharashtra, Mumbai, Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh — to players, including Datacom, promoted by Mahendra Nahata of HFCL, realty major Unitech, BPL-led Loop Telecom, Swan Telecom and Tata Teleservice.

DoT has already alloted start-up spectrum in six circles — Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

Spectrum refers to the radio frequency that enables wireless communications. It has been a subject of controversy in the past year due to the differences of opinion between the existing players and the policy-makers regarding the dual technology and revised norms of spectrum allocation.

The association of the existing GSM players, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), had strongly opposed the move to give new licences, arguing that there was not enough spectrum.

DoT had, however, said that enough spectrum was available to meet the demands of both existing and new players.

Shyam Telecom, which has opted to adopt the CDMA technology for mobile services, has already got spectrum in most of the circles, except in the two major circles of Delhi and Mumbai.

According to sources, Communication and IT Minister A Raja has asked the Telecom Commission to look at the availability of spectrum in other circles also and is likely to be cleared in various circles.

Sources said the spectrum would be allocated in the proposed four circles within a week.