DoT Raises Reserve Price for 3G & WiMAX – Upsets ISPs
The Department of Telecom (DoT), recently, announced the long-pending and much awaited 3G policy which allows foreign telecom firms to bid for a 3G license in India.
In the policy, DoT has raised the reserve price for the auction to over Rs. 2500 crores. The Indian ISPs, however, do not seem to be happy with this decision. The rise in the reserve price for the auction of a 3G license also means that the reserve price for the auction of the WiMax spectrum will be set to 1/4th of that of the 3G price. As a result, any ISP willing to bid for the license will have to shell out over Rs. 550 crore. The final price could be higher than this, depend upon how the auction comes out.
The representative body of the ISPs in India, the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), plans to approach TRAI, in order to try and convince them that the ISPs be charged only 25% of the highest bid that a telecom company makes for the WiMax spectrum. ISPAI president, Rajahs Charier, says:
We will tell TRAI that in order to have a competitive market, standalone ISPs must be charged a maximum of 25% of the highest bid that a telco makes for WiMAX spectrum. We will also seek that a few spectrum slots be reserved for ISPs during the WiMAX auction. This is perhaps the only way that government can address the dismal broadband penetration in the country. We (ISPs) will offer a much needed competition to telcos in the WiMAX space, without which they will not roll-out these services…
It is also interesting to note that any telecom company, willing to bid for both spectrums, will have to shell out over Rs. 3000 crore.
Against TRAI’s recommendations of rolling of wireless broadband in the 3.3-3.4 GHz and 3.4-3.6 Ghz frequencies, DoT plans to roll out services in the 2.5Ghz frequency band. Interestingly, one of the slots in this frequency is reserved for state-owned MTNL/BSNL, leaving only two slots empty.
From a technological point of view, WiMax is a more advanced technology and isstill in its evolving stages, which offers speeds upto 10-30 times that of the speeds offered by 3G. However, 3G is an essential technology since almost every new phone introduced in the marker has 3G. Ofcourse, we are still stuck using 2G services.
Which of these services are you most likely to use?
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3G of course! I am not that sure of WiMax yet