Bharti Airtel gives up CDMA spectrum in MP

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Wednesday surrendered its CDMA spectrum in Madhya Pradesh. It acquired CDMA spectrum with an intention to provide fixed wireless services. The company had separate licences for providing basic and cellular mobile services in the state.

Later it migrated to unified licensing regime and surrendered its basic licence, under which it got CDMA spectrum. Once it surrendered the basic licence, DoT asked it to pay higher charges for CDMA spectrum.

“After allowing the use of CDMA spectrum under the UAS licence, the company was forced to surrender the spectrum and was directed to pay the spectrum charges based on the combined GSM and CDMA spectrum allocated, which otherwise were to be charged separately,” said a press statement issued by Bharti.

“The company’s request for refund of entry fee, in view of surrender of fixed line licence was not entertained and it has been forced to surrender the CDMA spectrum,” said the press statement. Bharti Airtel has also appealed to the Centre to clear the hurdles in providing additional 2G spectrum.

About 20,000 subscribers were provided connections using CDMA spectrum. Most of them are in far flung areas. The company has migrated them to GSM technology.