According to Rahul Khullar, chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Indian operators require additional spectrum for providing better mobile connectivity and high speed download to users.
Khullar acknowledged spectrum scarcity being faced by the operators and stated that with a subscriber base of over 900 million, the country had about 40 per cent less spectrum compared to a European country which could be the size of Indian states of Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh.
The TRAI chief is of the view that if more spectrum is not freed for operators, quality of service will suffer. Mobile networks are now increasingly being used for consumption of videos and other data intensive applications rather than voice which was the case in the past. Khullar concluded that since India is committed to providing mobile connectivity in urban and rural areas, the country faces a different set of challenges in terms of infrastructure, last mile connectivity and quality of service due to congestion and capacity constraints as compared to other countries.
