MTNL-BSNL merger: Limited spectrum to be a challenge for combined entity

BSNL has a nice piece of real estate in the 2500 band, but doesn't have the engineering capacity to farm the band

There is a hitch in the government’s plan to allot additional 4G spectrum or airwaves to BSNL and MTNL.

There simply isn’t that much spectrum available to be allotted to these companies unless there is policy support for an unconventional decision.

The government release on Wednesday noted it would provide an “administrative allotment of spectrum for 4G services to BSNL and MTNL so as to enable these PSUs to provide broadband and other data services”.

Given the type of mobiles in the market and the technology available off the shelf for these two state-run companies, this would mean making the best use of