SPECTRUM: Battleground 1900

The war between GSM and CDMA operators, outside their commercial turf,
appears far from over. If earlier they were fighting over whether CDMA mobile
services were legal or not, they now appear to be preparing for a new battle-the
battle for 1900 MHz. GSM operators argue that allocating frequency in the 1900
MHz spectrum to CDMA operators would prove disastrous for them, hampering their
migration to 3G. While CDMA operators argue that the 1900 MHz spectrum must be
allocated to them so that India remains a part of the international community of
roaming wireless users. Interestingly, while the limited mobility issue was
taken up by various national associations, the battle for 1900 MHz has acquired
global overtones. The GSM Association, a global body of 650 GSM-based telecom
operators, is championing the GSM operators and the CDMA Development Group is
taking up the issue in favor of CDMA operators.

What has triggered the fight is the consultation paper on spectrum-related
issues (Efficient Utilisation, Spectrum Allocation, and Spectrum Pricing)
floated by TRAI in May 2004, which talked about looking into the possibility of
opening up the 1900 MHz for CDMA operators.

Speaking at the 3GSM World Congress Asia in September, Craig Ehrlich, GSMA
chairman said, "If the US PCS band is allocated in India, then the Indian
people will be denied the benefit of unrestricted access to global roaming in
the 3G world and the dynamic Indian IT and telecommunications industries will
suffer." In identifying the core 3G spectrum band back in 1992, ITU
realised the importance of long-term stability in spectrum policy. Through
economies of scale, globally harmonised spectrum will contribution to connecting
the unconnected. This proposal is a direct attack on all that the ITU has
achieved in this regard, said Ehrlich. This proposal is a short-term fix that
could do long-term harm to the country and its development of advanced 3G
services, he added.

More recently, Tom Philips, chief regulatory officer, GSMA, who was in India
to discuss the issue with TRAI and senior government officials, stressed that
India must not break ranks with the global practice by allocating the IMT-2000
band spectrum to CDMA players for mobile services, as this core band is reserved
only for 3G services. He added that the government needs to safeguard its 3G
future and that TRAI's consultation paper seeking to use IMT 2000 for CDMA
mobile services would isolate India from global 3G. Philips said that GSMA
disagrees with CDMA players that they can co-exist in that band. His argument-it
would create serious interference and disturbance and deployment of filters to
prevent such interference will raise the cost of the 3G services substantially.

The CDMA group believes that the GSM operators are opposing allocation of
1900 MHz on commercial grounds, to prevent the growth of CDMA in India, not for
any technical reasons.

BB Anand, president for regulatory affairs, Reliance Infocomm says, "The
world- over, GSM systems operate in the 900/1800 MHz bands while CDMA systems
operate in the 800/1900MHz bandwidth and India should be no different."
Following the introduction of unified licenses in 2003, the number of CDMA users
in India has grown exponentially to surpass 10 million and accounts for 25
percent of total users, says Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDMA
Development Group. "India is one of the key roaming markets and unless the
1900 MHz band is allocated to CDMA operators, CDMA subscribers in India and CDMA
users travelling to India will be deprived of international roaming," he
adds.

Whatever turn the current fight may take, it goes without saying that the
regulator will have to take an objective and holistic approach towards the whole
issue. It should not only keep the genuine interests of both categories of
operators in mind, but also make sure that the interests of Indian telecom and
users don't suffer.

Ravi Shekhar Pandey