On purely technical ground, it would be advisable to shift to an evaluation  

criterion based on Erlang density achieved over a pre specified area for a 

given Quality of Service & bandwidth. 

But as discussed earlier, this would ignore the economic aspects of spectrum 

efficiency, such as 

a)  Whether the cost incurred in achieving a particular efficiency is justified 

in the market under question? e.g. while normal business practice 

would justify large amount of micro sites in Mumbai or Delhi, it may not 

be so for urban centres in Cat `C' urban areas. Especially in a situation, 

where the pressure on spectrum is less in such cities.  

b)  Whether it would be more economical for service providers to take 

additional spectrum or to deploy additional infrastructure? 

5.4 

Approaches to spectrum allocation to Service Providers 

Before we consider allocating spectrum to new service providers it is pertinent 

to ensure that the existing service providers both GSM and CDMA have 

adequate spectrum. For allocating spectrum to the existing service providers it 

is imperative to keep in mind the availability of equipment in the bands 

proposed to be allocated so as to take advantage of the economies of scale. It 

is also important to ensure that allocated spectrum is being efficiently utilised.  

At the outset it is important to understand the legacy issues vis a vis the 

spectrum availability while evolving methodologies for spectrum allocation. 

The following considerations are noteworthy in this regard 

a) Spectrum already allocated; 

b)  Procedure adopted in allocating that spectrum; 

c)  Contractual Obligation in the license conditions 

d)  Need to ensure level playing field 

In practice, spectrum varying from 2 X 4.4 MHz to 2 X 10 MHz have been 

allocated to Service Providers using GSM technology, while 2X 2.5 MHz to 2 

X 3.75 MHz has been allocated to Service Providers using CDMA technology. 

Also, the license conditions for Cellular Mobile Service Providers envisage 

allocation upto 2 X 6.2 MHz (commitment of 2 X 4.4 MHz), while that of Basic 

Service Operators / UASL (using CDMA) envisage allocations upto 2 X 5 

MHz.  

The present spectrum available or likely to be available in near future is 20 

MHz in 800 MHz band, 23.4 MHz in 900 MHz band and upto 25 MHz (This 

varies from 10 MHz to 25 MHz depending upon service area) in 1800 MHz 

band. 

Two possible approaches emerge for spectrum allocation. 

These approaches are discussed with the assumption that 25 MHz is 

available in 1800 MHz band. 

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