Win for business, loss for technology

Win for business, loss for technology

The recent telecom spectrum allocation was a success for India because of a logical allocation scheme of auction followed by Indian government which provided bids worth over Rs 61,162 crore. The auction ensured a minimum revenue of Rs 18,296.36 crore to the government in the current financial year ending March 31. 

The telecom operators which took part in the auction will not face financial burden because of the sensible modification of payment terms which will allow them to pay the balance over the period of 12 years. This move will further provide benefits to the consumers as the tariffs will remain reasonable in the years to come.

Considering all above things, this auction was a successful attempt in the context of business. But is this the only method of utilizing the limited resources of spectrum bandwidth? If seen from a technological point of view, the allocation of a dedicated bandwidth to a single telecom operator for a long period of time is not at all a wise move.

 When we know that it is possible nowadays to allocate two or three operators a single spectrum pool to carry out communication process of making calls and data (internet usage by consumers) simultaneously according to their customer base, then why this old approach of allocation is followed?

India is already facing a scarcity of bandwidth because of rising number of mobile phone users, then why not the latest technological possibilities are utilized. We have examples of nations like ‘Sweden’ which follow the concept of allocation of a single bandwidth to multi operators and still maintains the position of world’s fastest internet. 

  

Instead of focussing only on the business model, Government of India should consider such schemes of exchangeable spectrum to make the bandwidth allocation a success from technological context as well.