3G trials get off the ground

Posted on | September 14, 2006 |

The dry-run for roll-out of 3G mobile services is finally taking off, as the government has provided low-power spectrum to GSM players BSNL, MTNL, Bharti and Hutch to carry out interface check on a non-commercial basis.

The trial spectrum has been given for one month and is 1/1000 of the actual 3G spectrum capability. It has to be used in a closed campus to see inter-operability of the interface with the existing system and is only for technical demonstration, the official said.

Commenting on why no CDMA player has been provided the spectrum,

Spectrum for carrying out 3G trial has been given to all who had applied under the National Frequency Allocation Plan on the 2.1 Ghz band, a senior Department of Telecom official said.

As far as CDMA players are concerned, while Tata Teleservices had sought 3G trial spectrum, it did not get it. On Reliance Communications, the official said, their case could not be considered as they had sought spectrum on 1900 Mhz band, which did not conform to the NFAP for their CDMA based 3G trials.

But if they (Reliance) ask us for spectrum on the 800 Mhz to carry out trial for EVDO (a version of 3G service for CDMA), we will consider their case, said the source.

Indeed good to see some real movement in the introduction of 3G services.

Source: ET

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