Advantage CDMA: Telcos can now go in for 3G trials

NEW DELHI: This round goes to CDMA players in the ongoing war for third generation (3G) mobile communication services spectrum between followers of the alternative technology standards, GSM and CDMA.

After a six-month delay, the department of telecom has finally allocated CDMA-based operators spectrum in the 1900 Mhz frequency to conduct field trials in Hyderabad, where GSM players have already been allowed to try out their 3G services in the 2100 Mhz band.

The department of telecom (DoT)’s stated aim is to put to the test, on the ground, the GSM players’ claim that allowing CDMA players to operate the 1900 Mhz band would interfere with their own 3G services, because of overlap between the 1900 Mhz and 2100 Mhz bands.

DoT has, however, turned down the CDMA operators’ demands that they be allowed to conduct field trails in the 1900 Mhz band conducted in the locations of Vijayawada, Hubli, Dharwad and Calicut. “We are deeply disappointed,” said Cellular Operators’ Association of India director general TV Ramachandran.

COAI represents GSM players like Bharti, Hutch and Idea. “Any small-scale trial cannot duplicate the problems that happen when large-scale deployment takes place. The results would be meaningless,” he said. GSM-based operators have constantly warned that any move to allocate spectrum in the 1900 Mhz band to CDMA players would have an adverse impact on their services offered in the 2100 Mhz band.

The DoT in its communication to CDMA operators last week said that “trials should be conducted with reasonable number of BTS of both the systems with proper placement to form a cluster along with large number of users/handsets, which is similar to the situation in a dense traffic area”.

It has also added that ‘in case of interference to existing users, the experiment will have to be discounted immediately’. “We have been asked to simulate trials with large number of users in order to provide the requisite data for the Wireless Planning and Co-ordination Wing (WPC) of the DoT to establish that it is possible to have mixed band allocations in India,” a source in the CDMA industry body told ET.

Chinese telecom vendor ZTE will provide the equipment and handsets to conduct the trials while the logistics will be provided by AUSPI and its members — Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, the source added. The move is also in line with the telecom regulator Trai’s directions.

Trai, in its recommendation on 3G did not allocate spectrum in the 1900 Mhz band to CDMA operators, but said, “the government should conduct a trial to verify the practical feasibility of coexistence of mixedband allocations, and in case the coexistence is found feasible and economically practicable, then it should work towards refarming the 1900 Mhz band, specifically 2*10 Mhz to enable future growth of 3G cellular services in India.”