Bharat Kumar

Mr Kanwalinder Singh, President, India and SAARC

Chennai , Sept 5

THE telecom industry is in the midst of a hot debate on the mode of spectrum allocation and basis for entry fee for 3G: Should the Government grant more spectrum to CDMA operators immediately whereas GSM operators may get it in a staggered fashion?

Do claims that CDMA is a more efficient technology matter in spectrum allocation? Answers to these questions abound.

But it's interesting to see what Qualcomm, the company that invented the CDMA (code division multiple access) technology used in mobile phones today, has to say.

As it was conducting a workshop for IIT students in the city on its technology, Mr Kanwalinder Singh, President, India and SAARC, spoke to Business Line.

Excerpts:

Mr Ratan Tata has recently stated that in the case of 3G (or third generation telecom services), the Government should charge a fixed entry fees as opposed to no entry fee as sought by cellular operators. Your views?

It is a question of consumer interest versus policy interest. It should ensure that only serious players enter the fray.

At the same time, the burden of fees should not be so onerous that it takes too long to repay.

We understand that the transition from CDMA 1X, that operators in India currently use, to CDMA's 3G - called EV-DO - is much easier to make compared to that by GSM operators. It would require lower capital investment. Given this, how would you create a level playing field for both GSM as well as CDMA operators?

Creating a level playing field does not mean holding back one technology while the other catches up.

It means letting all technologies compete with equal access to things such as spectrum. We have a big issue in front of us now.

So far, all lines put together, we have about 120 million in the country. As per the 2007 target, we should add another 120 million.

That means 60 million a year. We are not going that fast - in fact at only half that speed. CDMA's 3G technology, the EVDO, has been ready for deployment for over a year.

In India, we have wasted a year and a half on the spectrum issue.

Again, in the country, CDMA for the moment cannot grow beyond a certain point because we lack adequate spectrum. The Government should let market forces take over after allocating equal spectrum. CDMA has about 5 Mhz of spectrum while the GSM folks have about 10 MHz.

But isn't CDMA technology said to be about 5 times as efficient as GSM?

That is a myth. Also, you cannot base policy on relative efficiencies of technologies. GSM, for instance, could become more efficient through adopting WCDMA (Wide-band CDMA which is the migration path for GSM to 3G).

This approach (to policy) is flawed in many respects. First, doing so encourages inefficient technologies.

Second, given continued technology evolution, any estimate of relative efficiency is fleetingly accurate. If you look at a single base station, CDMA has a higher relative efficiency. But, comparing relative efficiencies on a standalone BTS (base transceiver station) basis does not take into account different network planning techniques used by GSM and CDMA networks.

Just one difference is that CDMA networks use 1:1 frequency reuse (all neighbouring BTS are on the same frequency) while GSM networks typically use 1:6 reuse (every 6th BTS employs the same frequency). This enables GSM networks in central business districts to have much higher cell density than CDMA networks before neighbouring BTS interfere with each other and diminish incremental capacity gains.

How do other countries with such a problem resolve this issue?

India is setting a bad example. I don't have other analogies. All countries, be it Korea, US or Japan, grant equal spectrum to all players.

There is concern in some quarters that mobile operators would migrate high-end voice subscribers to the spectrum meant for 3G once they get the spectrum. Isn't that a concern?

3G has been wrongly related to just data. In fact, it has higher voice capacity and can simultaneously handle voice and data. Which spectrum is used for which, is something that should be left to the operators.

What should we expect from Qualcomm for India in the near future?

uiOne and Media Flo. The former finally brings user interface personalisation to the mobile.

It should arrive in the calendar year 2006. Media Flo brings communication and broadcasting together.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu Business Line