Telecom services in Delhi to be affected hit due to spectrum allocation delays

Telecom services in the capital might be partially hit starting December due to delays by the Department of Telecom in fresh spectrum allocation to leading operators Airtel and Vodafone, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said,

The spectrum licences of Airtel and Vodafone, that had around 20 million subscribers in the National Capital Region, are set to expire by November-end.

PTI reported TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar saying in a letter to the DoT, ''The DoT should immediately call a meeting of both (Airtel, Vodafone) and arrive at a feasible solution so that consumers' inconvenience can be avoided.''

Airtel and Vodafone had bought fresh spectrum through auctions held in February 2014 as their permits would expire in November.

The two companies had 8 megahertz (Mhz) spectrum each in the premium 900 Mhz band, though, only 6 Mhz could be won back by Airtel and 5 Mhz by Vodafone.

The two companies bought some spectrum in 1,800 Mhz band to make up for spectrum the loss in the 900 Mhz band. Mobile signals transmitted in the 900 Mhz band cover almost double the area as against signals transmitted in 1,800 Mhz band.

''As reported by these telecom service providers, this whole exercise of changeover of frequencies will need to be carried out in two stages. The changeover will be a huge challenge as all these changes are to be carried out in a live network. Any lapse may result in service interruption,'' Khullar said.

According to Khullar, Idea Cellular, which had won 5 Mhz in 900 Mhz band, had to assign frequencies after Airtel and Vodafone vacated the same.

While spectrum had been allotted to Vodafone on 10 October after a delay of 8 months, DoT was yet to assign all frequencies to Airtel.

"The Authority is unable to understand the reasons for this inordinate delay in the assignment of spectrum despite the clear provision," Khullar said, PTI reported.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had earlier recommended that operators be assigned spectrum 18 months before expiry of their licences so that they could make necessary changes in their network without compromising on quality of service.

Vodafone had informed the regulator that deployment of 1800 Mhz frequency assigned to it would take a week, it would require nine weeks to free 3 Mhz spectrum in 900 Mhz band that it lost and three weeks for changing frequencies in the same band that were being presently held by Airtel.

Telecom operators had paid for spectrum in the first week of March DoT had started allocating spectrum to companies this month but was yet to completely assign all frequencies, especially in Delhi to mobile operators.