Goa: New entrants in the telecom arena have begun questioning the government's rationale for withholding release of radio frequency, although nine circles have 50-60 Mhz of frequency that is good to meet their requirement.

An official of one of the new telecom licensees said that the frequency or spectrum available in these nine circles, including Maharashtra and Kolkata, was enough to accommodate both new players as well as the need of existing GSM players.

The murmurs have started as any delay in allocation of spectrum would deny them a chance to partake in the telecom growth story, which is seeing addition of more than seven million users per month.

Idling the available resource will give advantage to existing GSM players, as well as Reliance Communications (which has secured GSM spectrum under dual technology clause), besides affect government's revenues and growth of telecom sector, sources contended.

One of the new entrants in the field said that further delay could also spoil the business of new players, who are likely to put in huge investments to roll out networks.

The new players, who have made the required payment for the spectrum more than two months ago, include Videocon promoted Data Com, Shyam Telelink which has partnered with Russian telecom giant Sistema, realty major Unitech, Swan Telecom, B K Modi's Spice Communications and S Tel.

Earlier, the government had indicated that they would start allocating spectrum to new players wherever it is available, while continuing negotiations with the defence ministry for vacation of more spectrum in other states.

For this, the Department of Telecom (DoT) had carried out a feasibility study to ascertain the availability of radio frequency in each state district wise.
Source : PTI