By IANS,
New Delhi : The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) Tuesday started the process of releasing radio frequencies or spectrum under the GSM technology of mobile telephony to five operators for the Tamil Nadu circle.
DoT granted start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz band to five telecom operators – Idea Cellular, Videocon-promoted Datacom, real-estate giant Unitech, Swan Telecom and Essar’s Loop Telecom.
In order to avoid any controversy over the spectrum issue, which has become a very scarce resource, the government has decided to allocate spectrum to both new and old operators, according to a ministry official.
The operators are expected to gradually get spectrum for other circles such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Kolkata by the end of the month, the official said.
As DoT has taken a slow and steady approach in allocating the frequencies, the operators would have to wait for longer before they obtain spectrum for important circles like Delhi.