New Delhi, Jan. 11: Much to the discomfort of existing operators, the government today placed a limit of 7.2MHz on GSM spectrum per circle for a telecom player.

The cap will negate the possibility of these firms getting extra spectrum in most telecom circles, meaning huge investments in infrastructure such as towers and boosters, if they want to accommodate more subscribers within existing spectrum space.

While notifying subscriber requirements for extra spectrum, the department of telecom (DoT) has imposed the new limit. Under the old norm, the limit was 15MHz.

The subscriber requirements had been fixed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. They are tougher than existing requirements.

For CDMA players, the government has lowered the cap on spectrum to 5MHz from 7.5MHz. Many GSM operators hold up to 10 MHz of spectrum, but officials said the operators would not be asked to return extra spectrum.

According to a telecom analyst, “Spectrum space is shared by cell phone users when they use their mobile phones. Thus the number of mobile users who can use certain spectrum is limited. This limit can be expanded by using technological innovations such as boosters.”

GSM operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar argued that if older licence norms were taken into account, they were entitled to a maximum of 15 MHz of spectrum. Restricting that amount at this stage was arbitrary and illegal.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents interests of GSM operators, today moved Delhi High Court against the new norms. “A 7.2-MHz cap on radio waves (spectrum) would put strain on telecom networks, affecting the quality of service,” a COAI official said.

However, DoT officials said the move would bring about a positive change.

“This system would not only force telecom operators to effectively utilise available spectrum but would also ensure that the quality of service, which operators argued was deteriorating because of insufficient spectrum, improved,” officials of the DoT said.

Radio waves

The government today allotted spectrum to Vodafone, Aircel, Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel.

Reliance Communications, too, got GSM spectrum, becoming the first entity to provide both GSM and CDMA services on a pan-India basis.

Videocon plans

Consumer electronics major Videocon today said it would roll out mobile services by the end of this year and was expecting 10 million subscribers in three-four years of the launch.