Reliance Communication To Enter Gsm Services

[Arun 795]

Will Anil's telecom venture bear fruit?

- Rediff.com

Shobhana Subramanian | June 16, 2006

Changing horses mid-stream, a la the mobile phone operator Telefonica Moviles Mexico. Is that what Reliance Communications is doing? RCL currently has only 2.2 mn GSM subscribers across eight circles. It claims it will grow both its GSM and CDMA networks.

Industry analysts, however, are inclined to believe that much like Telefonica or the Argentinian player CTI Movil - both of which switched over from CDMA to GSM - RCL too might be contemplating a similar move.

Reliance officials refused to confirm or deny this development. However, company sources said that "while such a move is not on the cards immediately, it may happen over a period of time".

That might be not be such a bad idea, say telecom analysts. RCL's announcement that it intends to beef up its networks in the existing eight circles (it wants to add 10-12 mn additional lines and cover 4,300 towns as against 330 towns currently) fits in neatly with this.

Why would RCL want to migrate to GSM when it has already built up a strong CDMA franchise - its market share at the end of May was 20.6 per cent and its total base was 19.3mn? Here's why?

CDMA is considered to be the superior technology, especially for data services which high-value customers demand. That's why in markets such as the US, ARPUs (average rate per user) from CDMA networks are far higher.

Companies such as Verizon and Sprint position their networks as high-quality service networks and earn better ARPUs. However, despite this, only around 15 per cent of the world uses CDMA - the main markets being the US and Korea.

In India, however, the advantages of the superior CDMA technology have been outweighed by the huge demand for international roaming services and the wider range of handsets available for GSM users.

Analysts point out that while it is not impossible to roam in CDMA countries, it can be difficult. This is why many users prefer GSM.

What has probably made CDMA less popular with some users is that one cannot change service providers without changing the handsets.

Since a large percentage of user base would be at the lower end, which is not looking for international roaming, but wants variety in handsets, GSM has had its share of fans.

Besides, there is talk that number portability is around the corner and perhaps the time is not far off when users can access both technologies from the same instrument.

Obviously the migration, assuming that's the gameplan, would happen over three to four years. "The cost of equipment has reduced significantly in the last four or five years when players like Bharti were rolling out their networks. Equipment now costs about half of what it used to or in some cases even less," observes a telecom consultant.

The cost of rolling out the network for Delhi and Bombay, according to the RCL management will be much lower than if it were a greenfield venture.

It claims it will save as much as 30 per cent on basic infrastructure: that's because the cell sites, the steel structures and the back haul network will be common to both CDMA and GSM networks.

Besides, it claims it would save another 15 per cent on distribution - it will use its 200 Web Worlds to sell the GSM service.

Moreover, it would not need to spend too much additionally on branding though it may create a sub-brand.

So while a newcomer might have to spend between Rs 2000 -2500 crore (Rs 20-25 billion) on the Delhi and the Mumbai networks, RCL would need to spend just about half of that.

However, given the strong competition in the GSM space with players such as Bharti and Hutch, RCL will need to spruce up its image.

[abhay 0]

Reliance GSM services by March '07

Company ropes in JM Morgan Stanley for operations rejig .

Reliance Communications may launch its GSM services in Delhi and Mumbai by March-end. The move is expected to trigger off a tariff war as the company is planning to introduce competitive pricing strategies.

The Anil Ambani-promoted company has also roped in JM Morgan Stanley (JMMS) as financial advisor for a proposed re-organisation.

Even though the exact details for the reorganistaion were not available, sources speculate that this could be bringing all its telephony operations - internet, CDMA, GSM and submarine cable - under one umbrella.

"Telecom tariffs in the country have reached a plateau, with no new price points being discovered during the last six months. Reliance Communications is working towards introducing new price points that would result in bringing in the next phase of growth in the telecom sector," a source close to the development said today. When contacted, Reliance Communications officials declined to comment.

The company expects to be allocated the 1,800 MHz spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) by October.

Apart from the two metros – Mumbai and Delhi – Reliance Communications is also looking to expand its GSM services to other parts of the country.

The company is planning to bundle instruments with services, thus lowering the price of handset. Also the absence of royalty charges in GSM, unlike in CDMA, will result in considerably lower handset prices.

According to analysts, lower prices could trigger off another tariff war in the sensitive telecom sector.

The industry has been a competitive one, with each player trying to outpace the other.

http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/...ono=95527&tab=r

[kshah 452]

Infact if you really look at the scenario, it seems Reliance is smart enough to save itself from future hessles.

Reasons I think are:

1. CDAM, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA are patented technologies by Qualcomm alone (About 2500 patents)

http://ce.seekingalpha.com/article/6819

http://www.qualcomm.com/ir/annualreport/ar...hLicensing.html

2. Cost of 3G spectrum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS

3. Future wi-fi networks and wi-fi enbled handsets.

This will surely cheaper alternate than data on W-CDMA / CDMA / EVDO networks. Hence time may come that mobile user will be reluctant to rely upon service provider for data needs due to cost as well as convinience. As CDMA / WCDMA handset will be more expensive due to royalty issues. Services are expensive due to cost of spectrum etc.

Interesting chinese story about 3G

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2150838/...delays-china-3g

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2151786/...ews-wrap-130306

[Arun 795]

CDMA is dying by the day: Sunil Mittal

Indian Express - Saturday, June 24, 2006 at 0000 hrs

Sends big signal to spectrum policymakers, impact of 3G services will be tremendous

NEW DELHI, JUNE 23: Days after top CDMA operator Reliance stunned everybody by switching sides to GSM technology, the biggest mobile operator Bharti Airtel said that CDMA is on its way out in India and that the country’s spectrum policy needs to stay in tune with the big, globally harmonised spectrum rules.

‘‘CDMA is dying by the day. Even in Korea and the US, there is a steady shift to GSM,’’ Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel Ltd, told The Indian Express on Friday.

Mittal said that worldwide, GSM operators are migrating to W-CDMA technology while CDMA operators are switching to GSM. He said that if the US players T-Mobile and Cingular can switch sides from CDMA, it sends a ‘‘very big signal’’ to spectrum policymakers about where technology is headed.

‘‘W-CDMA is a kind of CDMA that is used by GSM players to provide 3G services. But CDMA is a closed technology for which heavy royalties have to be paid, so the CDMA people are moving to GSM, an open technology,’’ Mittal said.

He added that W-CDMA is becoming popular with telecom operators worldwide because Qualcomm, which developed CDMA technology, charges significantly lower royalties for W-CDMA than it does for CDMA. ‘‘The significantly lower royalties for W-CDMA definitely play on operators’ minds,’’ Mittal said.

In such a scenario, while Reliance’s adoption of GSM does give Bharti another major competitor on its own turf, it may bring the two warring sides together on the controversial spectrum allocation rules. Indian CDMA players want the government to give them spectrum in the 1900 MHz band where they can provide 3G services. But GSM operators want to keep them out of this band because of interference concerns.

‘‘The 1900 MHz band is not given to CDMA anywhere but in Korea and the US, and there is a steady shift away from that even there,’’ Mittal stated. ‘‘I think that in India the deal is done — we need to stay with the big, globally harmonised spectrum bands and keep 2GHz for W-CDMA,’’ he sad.

Of course, Reliance may still keep its CDMA business working for several years if not forever and another big CDMA operator still remains: Tata Teleservices. There is no reason yet why this business house should want to give up on the claim for 1900 MHz to provide 3G.

Mittal said that when 3G is finally launched in India, its impact will be tremendous, though that is not yet being sensed yet by anyone in India. ‘‘E-payments, e-governance and a range of e-services will transform the landscape. And we need it to happen,’’ he said.

On a recent controversy about cellular subscriptions, Mittal said that the debate was ‘‘unnecessary.’’ He said that it was unlikely that operators were padding up their numbers significantly, but even if they were, there was little to be gained from it.

[abhay 0]

yup seems so!! since nokia also planning to quit CDMA buissness! CDMA could be up for a major DOWNFALL

Edited June 25, 2006 by abhay

[abhay 0]

Tata fails to connect with Qualcomm over royalty

Financial Express

Posted online: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 at 0020 hours IST

NEW DELHI, JUNE 27: Tata group chairman Ratan Tata and his seven-member delegation have failed to convince Qualcomm chief Paul Jacobs to bring down the 7% royalty charged on CDMA handsets sold in India.

Jacobs expressed his inability to reduce royalty during his meeting with Tata on Tuesday evening. This was Jacobs' first meeting on his India tour. He is scheduled to meet communications minister Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday and Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani on Thursday, both of whom will also demand lower royalty.

Tata group's Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) is the second largest CDMA operator in the country.

Sources said Tatas also sought parity between GSM and CDMA handsets at the operator level but the Qualcomm chief said that since CDMA was a superior technology a $3 differential was bound to be there. However, this would come down over the next four to five years. Tatas are believed to have expressed their unhappiness at this.

Qualcomm chief met with a seven-member Tata delegation, which included Tata and TTSL's CEO, Darryl Green, and discussed ways and means to further develop CDMA technology and offer new state-of-the-art services. While Indian players pay 7% royalty to Qualcomm, in China and South Korea the royalty is about 2%.

The two sides are also believed to have discussed the spectrum policy of the government, which according to them, is loaded in favour of the GSM technology. Tata has already written about the issue to the department of telecommunications (DoT) and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

The two sides are also believed to have discussed the scenario if Reliance Communications switches over to GSM technology.

Edited June 27, 2006 by Arun

[Arun 795]

aww well, doesn't seem to be any hope when Jacobs meet Anil Ambani either. Move to GSM and teach them a lesson

[Ramchi 0]

Reliance must quit the dead-end & expensive CDMA where Qualcomm is expecting Indians to pay more for nothing! Even otherwise Qualcomm is not going to go bankrupt. They are anyway going to make more money thru W-CDMA.

[abhay 0]

Don't move back to 2G from 3G: Qualcomm to Reliance

Peeved at the shift in focus of the most committed Indian players of its CDMA platform, US based Qualcomm Inc today suggested to Anil Ambani owned Reliance Communications not to 'move back to a second generation' technology (GSM).

"I haven't had the chance to talk to Reliance on this trip yet .. CDMA is third generation technology. It provides data capability in proven economic conditions, even at the bottom of the pyramid. Therefore, it seems strange to move from a 3G technology back to a second generation technology", Paul Jacob, CEO, Qualcomm Inc told newspersons here.

Even as it has a national footprint on CDMA mobile service with over two crore subscribers, Reliance Communications recently applied for spectrum from the government to start GSM based mobile services in some more circles. The company has 21 lakh GSM subscribers.

Jacob is slated to meet Anil Ambani tomorrow.

"We are having this discussion…. Their focus is to get the lowest possible cost for the handsets .. We are working with them to try to enable them that", Jacob said.

Indian GSM players had seen Reliance's entry as a major victory for their technology based services with even one operator going to the extent of saying that the non-GSM players are non-serious players who would be weeded out in competition.

Even as Reliance had GSM operations earlier, the move to expand GSM services was seen as a way to move away from the high cost of CDMA operations due to a high royalty fee.

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?...=54&sid=BUS

[rajeshkatiyar 3]

Dear Friends

Do not get desperate by Rel GSM Plannings.It is a careful step. Rel is planning for Delhi and Mumbai initialy. Actually revenue comes from FAT customers with thick wallets. These cities are rich of these customers. Rel has calculated that to reach these Customers it needs variety of good quality Premium sets which they do not have. CDMA chip manufacturer Qualcomm is monopolizing all things.They need 7% royalty and imposing lot other restrictions. Due to this you will not see premium Quality sets in CDMA . Nokia has decided to stop Manufacturing them and Samsung and LG threatened To do so from August. Rel is willing for Qualacom to To develop a single chip working for both CDMA and GSM. At present Samsung have dual mode set but they have two separate chip on single PCB. This increases cost (about 10 k}. Rel is trying to reach thick fat Customers of metros only. They have planned Roaming on CDMA by new chips. At present every body is pressuring Qualacomm to decrease royalty and develop a Dual chip. Let us pray to God they get success. Otherwise Rel will have to expand its GSM network to Whole country. This will definitely affect its Expansion in CDMA.

Regards

[rajeshkatiyar 3]

Dear Friends

One more strange fact ( source outlook July 3) GSM 1800 spectrum towers has low range and lot of towers are required for coverage. Reliance has 500 towers covering both Mumbai and Delhi while Airtel has 1200 towers in delhi only. It clearly means that shifting to GSM will be Expensive 950 new towers are required in delhi only. Also think if Qualacom is not willing to provide dual mode chip, then what will happen to roaming to Reliance GSM customers !

Edited June 29, 2006 by Arun

[Arun 795]

Anil Ambani, Jacobs haggle for 5 hours

Anil extracts volume discounts from Qualcomm

Financial Express

Thursday, June 29, 2006 23:35 IST

NEW DELHI: Qualcomm CEO Paul E Jacobs' last stop in India looks to be the most crucial one.

Along with senior executives of Qualcomm, he is learnt to have been in a meeting with Reliance Communications chief Anil Ambani for around five hours on Thursday. Jacobs also met Ambani for a second session over dinner in Mumbai.

Jacobs, however, offered to reduce the prices of its handsets by asking the component makers to take a cut and bring them in line with the prices in China. When contacted, Qualcomm officials did not comment on the meeting.

Qualcomm ruled out royalty cut on CDMA handsets in his meeting with Ambani, so the two discussed volume-related discounts, sources said.

A number of opportunities related to volume discounts were discussed, Jacobs told the media after the marathon meeting. He did not elaborate on "volume", but indicated that it did not necessarily mean subscriber base of an operator. There can be a lot of things related to volumes, he is learnt to have said.

However, if Qualcomm takes into account subscriber base, Reliance Communications with around 20 million CDMA subscribers, would emerge the winner.

Since Reliance Communications recently indicated its plans to focus significantly on the GSM technology, it was important for Qualcomm to make things attractive for Ambani to continue with the CDMA platform.

In fact, a day before meeting Ambani, Jacobs had told the media that he would try to convince Ambani to continue with the CDMA platform. "It seems strange to move from a 3G technology (CDMA) back to a second-generation technology (GSM)," he had said.

[abhay 0]

Anil rejects Qualcomm`s discount proposal

Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani has refused to accept the volume-based discount proposal that was pitched by the top brass of US-based Qualcomm, which has led to the failure of talks between the two companies.

Ambani, who had an eight-hour-long meeting with Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, had sought a reduction in handset prices by reducing royalty levies.

"Ambani was open only to a handset price reduction as against the volume-led discount on cost elements, other than royalty, that was being offered by the CDMA technology licensor. He was not ready to settle for anything other than a reduction in handset prices," a source close to the development told Business Standard today.

Reliance Communications team had termed the volume discount structure opaque and not in the interests of consumers.

The Qualcomm team is also believed to have made an offer to share marketing, advertising and promotional costs incurred by Reliance Communications and other CDMA service providers who promote its technology.

Market sources say that 7 per cent royalty is being levied on CDMA handsets sold in the Indian market, while that in China and Korea was around 2 per cent and zero per cent in the United States.

http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/...96881&tab=r

[KingofKalyan 0]

Why the hell Qualcomm wants big bites from INDIA !

[kshah 452]

Dear Friends

One more strange fact ( source outlook July 3) GSM 1800 spectrum towers has low range and lot of towers are required for coverage. Reliance has 500 towers covering both Mumbai and Delhi while Airtel has 1200 towers in delhi only. It clearly means that shifting to GSM will be Expensive 950 new towers are required in delhi only. Also think if Qualacom is not willing to provide dual mode chip, then what will happen to roaming to Reliance GSM customers !

As frequency goes high range it covers decreases. This is one of the reason why 3G is expensive to deploy.

[FEVIN-RAJ 61]

Reliance Comm bids for Sri Lankan GSM licence

JOJI THOMAS PHILIP

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, JULY 01, 2006 12:00:48 AM]

NEW DELHI: After failing in its bid to acquire a mobile licence in Egypt, the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications is eyeing new ventures closer home — the company has bid for a mobile licence in Sri Lanka to become the island country’s fifth GSM-based mobile operator.

Reliance Communications will, however, have to beat two other Asian power houses — Malaysia’s leading service provider Maxis Communications and Singapore Telecommunications, which are also in the race for the licence, which is estimated to be worth $4m.

Bids for the licence closed on Friday. Sri Lankan media quoted the country’s telecommunications regulatory commission (TRC) director general, Kanchana Ratwatte saying that the response has been good and over 10 companies showed interest in the licence before the deadline closed. TRC is slated to announce the winning bid in the next couple of days.

If Reliance has to win the bid, it would have to compete with the Telekom Malaysia-owned Dialog Telecom (the largest operator in the country), Celltel Lanka (owned by Luxembourg-based service provider Millicom International Cellular), Hutchison (owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications) and Sri Lankan government owned Mobitel.

Sources also said that despite the presence of four operators, Sri Lanka offered ample scope for an additional operator as its telecom penetration was under 20%. Besides, the landline service in the country is also poor, providing an added incentive to mobile operators.

General Kanchana Ratwatte has also been quoted as saying that new licences would be issued only after the clearance from the defence ministry over issues such as equipment and ownership

Now LTTE can also hav a RIM ........!!!!!

[abhay 0]

it would actully be RELIANCE MOBILE not RELIANCE INDIA MOBILE

rim is CDMA

rm is GSM

[Puneet 0]

As a matter of fact, RIM doesn't exists anymore. Its Reliance Mobile for CDMA too.

[KumaarShah 143]

Can Reliance ring in the GSM tone

What could be the reasons for Reliance's proposed move to GSM? A few answers and a little speculation.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Shashwat Chaturvedi

MUMBAI: Just a fortnight or so ago, the telecom industry in India was agog with rumors about Reliance Communications Ventures Limited aggressive shift towards the GSM mobility market. According to the market buzz, the company planned to start GSM operations in Delhi and Mumbai with an estimated investment of over Rs. 1500 crore. Also, that Reliance was already in talks with major equipment vendors like Nokia, ZTE, and Motorola for rolling out GSM service.

While Reliance is not new to GSM, it already operates a few networks in certain circles, like Bihar and North East, the news made every one sit up. Simply because, Reliance is the leading player in the CDMA mobility segment, has close to 19 million users, more than double of its competition Tata Indicom.

One of the main reasons mooted behind this move is the allocation of spectrum bandwidth. Agrees TR Madan Mohan, director (Consulting), ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan India. “There are several advantages for Reliance for moving to GSM. First, if the application is approved, it gets access an additional 5 Mhz of spectrum, a scarce resource.”

He also goes on to state that access to additional spectrum in high-dense areas such as Mumbai and Delhi makes economic sense. Moreover, since the back-end remains more or less same, no fresh investments are required from Reliance. “Rolling out of new services in the key circles of Mumbai and Delhi would offer Reliance the required growth engine to sustain double-digit growths,” he adds.

The shift could make good business sense, as well. GSM is an open standard, so that the company would not have to pay any sort of royalty to Qualcomm. Currently, there has been a lot of heated debate on the royalty charged by Qualcomm for CDMA. According to estimates, the average royalty per CDMA handset turns out to be around $13. In fact, a few industry insiders hint at the possibility of that Reliance is pressurizing Qualcomm by this move.

Though Mohan adds that, “GSM entry would open up a growth stream for Reliance. The company can offer GSM-CDMA dual phones or obtain additional revenues from GSM services to exploit the user-base scale advantages, thus beating the competition on price,” he says.

Will this adversely affect the CDMA market in India? Mohan feels that this is a victory for the dominant standard. He cites Metcalf's law of positive network externalities that states that the 'standard' with a significant market share will become the dominant standard and the markets would tip to the dominant market in the long run.

“Given the GSM worldwide subscriber base is over 2 billion and CDMA worldwide subscriber base is about 318 Million, both from a producer and consumer perspective the markets are expected to tip to the large standard,” he adds.

Recently, Nokia had announced it is going to discontinue making of CDMA mobile phones (partnered with Japan's Sanyo Electric).

Mohan also mentions the case of Chinese CDMA giant Unicom's shift to GSM. “Also, in other parts of world, operators who initially pursued 800-1900 MHz CDMA have moved to 1800 GSM MHz as it supports both GSM and CDMA. Consider China Unicom, initially a large CDMA player and recently has moved to GSM. With about 370 Million and 80 Million GSM users in China and India respectively, the operators would find the logic of moving to technology-neutral as a good option to grow,” feels Mohan.

It is a win-win situation for the customer, as NK Goyal, senior telecom analyst and president, Indian Manufacturing Foundation says, “Customer needs a phone, he does not care whether it is CDMA or GSM, as long as it is cost-effective.” He also mentions that MTNL and BSNL, both successfully run CDMA and GSM services, “so there isn't anything new,” he adds.

Analysts feel that Reliance's competitor; Tata would adopt a wait-and- watch approach for the moment as they recently exited Idea. “GSM entry decision for Tata would depend on the fairness of frequency allocations, their business plans and concessions from Qualcomm itself. Qualcomm, may consider reducing the royalty rates to sustain their installed base and thus offer price-parity to Tata,” mentions Mohan.

As far as the other GSM operators goes, they need not worry as the market pie is too large. “After all, we have still to meet the 500 million user target by 2010,” says Goyal.

Thus, Reliance has quite many reasons to shift to GSM. Though an industry insider mentions insidiously, that it also has something to do with the Ambani brothers' rivalry. Reliance Infocomm was Mukesh Ambani's brainchild, and now, Anil Ambani wants to prove his mettle and venturing into GSM is one way to overshadow his “bhaiyya ka sapna (brother's dream)”.

© CyberMedia News

Link Courtesy:http://www.voicendata.com/content/vndtoday/106070302.asp

[adwait 0]

As frequency goes high range it covers decreases. This is one of the reason why 3G is expensive to deploy.

Yeah?? I though it was the other way round...........

[Chirag 5]

Well, i believe its wise enuf for Reliance to go ahead for GSM. Though it seems as if moving from 3G to 2G is dull, but the fact is that today CDMA operators aren't being given enuf spectrum. We all can notice that with enuf call drops and disconnections etc.

If Reliance wants be a dominant player and has big ambitions, it cannot let the Government Policies let its ambitions go down the drain. With GSM, it can get more subscribers and higher ARPUs. For Reliance its definitely the right move.

Now its more in the hands of the policymakers as to how far they'll let Reliance go ahead in its plans. Coz spectrum is solely available with them!

[abhay 0]

well i think the spectrum issue is only in INDIA

[jusmail 0]

The majority of the spectrum in India is held by the ministry of Defence, and to relinquish it from them is a lot of red tape, national security, etc.

[rajeshkatiyar 3]

Dear Chirag

It is not a fact that Rel is not given enough spectrum .Spectrum to be be alloted is based on number of

subscribers . only TATA is worried about it because they do not have enough subscribers

Regards

Edited July 4, 2006 by rajeshkatiyar

[Puneet 0]

Cell cos can't provide GSM, CDMA in the same circle

MANOJ GAIROLA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, JULY 05, 2006 01:58:19 AM]

NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has held that mobile operators cannot provide services on GSM and CDMA platforms simultaneously in a circle under one licence.

Consequently, Reliance Communications has been informed that it will have to vacate the CDMA spectrum in those circles where it wants to migrate to GSM technology. The company has licences for both cellular and unified access services in eight circles - Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Orissa and North East. Therefore, it will continue offering mobility both on CDMA and GSM technologies.

In the rest of the country, it will have to choose between GSM and CDMA technologies. Reliance officials have been saying the company will continue to offer both technologies to the subscribers.

The DoT has also said that the company will be allotted GSM spectrum in a phased manner so that it can shift its CDMA subscribers to GSM and the services do not get disturbed. However, this is subject to the availability of spectrum.

Reliance Communications' strategy is not yet clear. The DoT had asked Reliance to submit its business plans, which it has not done. Industry sources say it is unclear whether Reliance Communications will actually shift from CDMA to GSM platform or whether it will enhance its investments across both technologies as it operates both the services in eight circles. The unified access service licences and cellular service licences are technology neutral.

However, the DoT decision that an operator will not be allotted spectrum for both CDMA and GSM implies that the operators will have to restrict to only one technology.

According to DoT officials, the subscribers can easily be shifted to GSM technology in a phased manner. The company can be allotted more and more GSM spectrum as it vacates the CDMA spectrum. Reliance Communications has a total subscriber base of close to 19m in CDMA technology all over the country. Its subscriber base in the eight circles is 3m. It recently announced that it is looking to migrate from CDMA to GSM technology.

Reliance is apparently not happy with the royalty issue. It wants that Qualcomm should charge less royalty from handsets and equipment sold in India. Reliance also feels that spectrum policy is biased towards GSM operators. CDMA operators are at a disadvantage as they are given only half the spectrum that is given to GSM.

How come MTNL and BSNL can provide both in the same circle, maybe because they have the Union Govt license rather than the unified access license.