Government weighs additional spectrum allocation on calls basis

Mumbai: The government is considering allocation of additional spectrum to mobile phone operators on the basis of the number of calls originating from their network rather than on the basis of subscriber numbers.

"There are various suggestions and one of the suggestions under consideration is to change the allocation of spectrum from subscriber-linked to calls originating method," Shakeel Ahmad, minister of state for communication, said on the sidelines of a summit on Wimax.

He said the authorities have received numerous complaints on players showing "inflated number" of subscribers to get more spectrum and that practice needs to be checked to improve efficiency.

In fact, the issue was raised about two years ago by Ratan Tata who had faulted the methodology for allocating spectrum based on the number of subscribers.

GSM players had criticised the observation of Tata, who had also recommended an independent audit of the number of subscribers announced by each operator

Both GSM and CDMA operators have been lobbying to get hold of scarce airwaves to enhance their services.

The GSM lobby includes players such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, while CDMA players are Reliance Communication and Tata Teleservices.