Calcutta, Jan. 4: There is some good news for mobile operators.

The government is likely to allocate an additional 20MHz of spectrum for the second generation networks this quarter.

This has been a long standing demand of the industry, to improve the quality of their service.

The allocation could be done as early as the end of this month for all the telecom circles across the country.

“I have met the Army chief and are in constant touch with the ministry and we are given to understand that an allocation is on the anvil during this quarter. Such allocations assume great significance in a growing market like India,” said Manoj Kohli, president, Bharti Airtel Limited.

He was at Intaglio 2007, the annual B-school meet of IIMC.

In foreign countries, service operators are given 14 to 16 MHz to start with, while in India the allocation is 4.5MHz in the beginning. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has pulled up companies for quality of service.