Three players for Wimax roll out in the country

New Delhi, July 23 (UNI) The Department of Telecom (DoT) has said there would be three players initially for the roll out of Wireless Broadband or WiMax in the country a proposal which is awaiting clearance of the Telecom Minister Azhimuthu Raja.

The DoT has also said the three players will operate the service in 2.5 GHz frequency band only and one of the slots will be reserved for state-owned telcos BSNL and MTNL.

The base price for auction for WiMax spectrum will be set at 25 per cent of the amount for 3G spectrum, the DoT Committee report said after studying TRAI's recommendations on spectrum allocation and pricing for wireless broadband rollout.

In rupee terms, this would translate into a cost of Rs 40 crore in catergory A circles of Delhi and Mumbai.

Earlier, the same committee has proposed that for 3G spectrum, the base price will be Rs 160 crore for Category 'A' circles, Rs 80 crore for Category 'B' circles and Rs 30 crore for Category 'C' circles.

The country is divided into 23 telecom circles spaced into three different category A, B and C.

The DoT Commitee report to offer WiMax in the 2.5 GHz frequency is inline with the global scenario but is quite contary with TRAI recommendations as the Regulator had suggested WiMax roll out in 3.3 to 3.4 GHz and 3.4-3.6 GHz frequencies and up to 13 players to be accomodated for offering these services.

The DoT added that other players would be offered WiMax spectrum in those frequencies recommended by the Regulator at a later stage.

Since the 3.4 GHz-3.6 GHz frequency is used by satellite-based services and broadcasters spectrum in this frequency for WiMax will only be known after trials relating to co-existence of both WiMax and satellite-based services is conducted.

In the 3.3 GHz-3.4 Ghz frequency, the DoT said that equipment will not be available for the spectrum preferred by India. And since frequencies such as 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz were already de-licenced any operator could utilise these bands to provide WiMax services, the DoT said.

The 2.5 GHz frequency has been limited to three players as about 70 units of spectrum will be available in the 2.5 Ghz band. This frequency is used by India's Insat satellite series.

As DoT is planning to allocate 20 units of spectrum to each player, only about three operators can be accommodated in this band.

UNI