Subscriber numbers hound spectrum war

The claim, based on figures presented by the Indian Cellular Association ICA at a closed-door session of telecom players with the Confederation of Indian Industry CII on Saturday, may put to the test a recent claim by Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata on the same issue.

Tata has asked the government not to allocate spectrum based on subscriber numbers since the figures are more likely to be 8216;8216;self-proclaimed8217;8217; than accurate. His argument veers around to the view that subscriber numbers are often inflated to capture larger shares of spectrum.

But the ICA has brought forward numbers that show subscriber figures are more likely under-reported. According to industry sources present at the meeting, the ICA finds 15 million handsets were sold in the last three months, higher than the total subscribers reported over the period some 13.5 million.

8216;8216;In April 2006 alone, five million-plus handsets were sold against four million connections,8217;8217; sources quoted ICA as saying.

In addition, ICA showed that 15-20 per cent of handsets are sold after being refurbished and repaired or through illegal means or personally imported by users. These were not even considered by ICA, making for even greater handset shipments than officially accounted for.

8216;8216;In all, it seems like subscriber numbers are under-reported rather than inflated,8217;8217; said a telecom industry executive.

This argument, if accepted by the Department of Telecom DoT, may not translate into more spectrum allocations to both the GSM and CDMA camps, but it would certainly not trim the present allocations.

Ratan Tata8217;s stated point of view seems to have bounced off the walls during the discussions at CII, with Bharti, Hutch, BSNL, Idea, MTNL, Spice and Dishnet DSL, in favour of continuing the subscriber linked allocation.

They were backed up for the most part by Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson, the telecom vendors present that day.

Subscriber reportage across the board is not considered authentic since operators do not want to disclose their relative position compared to each other.

Telecom cos disagree on FDI norms

NEW DELHI: On Saturday, telecom players also failed to agree on FDI norms. The government recently tried to bring in those players who bring in more foreign shareholding than 49 per cent under a tighter security scanner, but the operators disagreed. Operators said instead that the only aspect in which a differentiation was allowable in cases of players with 49 per cent or less FDI, is on the applicability of automatic FIPB approval. Clearly, the recent review of telecom FDI norms is far from over.

pragya.singhexpressindia.com