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Agreeing to a proposal made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), The Department of Telecommunications? (DoT) legal wing is also inclined that new operators should have first access to additional airwaves. This will help them perform efficiently.
Meanwhile, incumbents such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, who have been awaiting additional frequencies for close to two years, are set to oppose the policy change that will give priority to the new entrants. While this will benefit players such as Reliance Communications (GSM), Etisalat and Videocon, other new entrants such as TATA DOCOMO, Uninor and Loop Telecom will be partially affected. This is because as per TRAI?s proposal, operators such as TATA DOCOMO and Uninor will be placed last in the spectrum queue and their chances of obtaining 2G spectrum in circles like Delhi will be slim.
At the same time, TATA DOCOMO and Uninor will benefit in all circles where they already hold start-up airwaves if this proposal is implemented as they will be placed above incumbents in the queue for airwaves in these regions.
Reliance Communications stands to benefit most, as it has obtained the initial start up 4.4 MHz spectrum in all circles and is awaiting an additional 1.8 MHz in most of the circles where they offer GSM service. Tata Teleservices will be the worst affected as they are still awaiting start-up spectrum in Delhi and 39 key districts of the other 18 circles where they currently offer GSM service.
