BSNL EVDO

In a bid to get pan-India coverage for its third generation (3G) mobile services, Tata Teleservices has approached Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd for roaming agreements. The two PSUs together are the only entity to have 3G spectrum across all the 22 circles. Tata Teleservices has won spectrum in nine circles but not in the key cities of Delhi and Mumbai.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Tata Teleservices, said: “We managed to get nine key circles and are happy with that. These circles are contiguous and that has its benefits. To enable our subscribers get seamless connectivity in other circles, we are in talks with BSNL and MTNL for a roaming agreement.”

Tata Teleservices was keen on 3G spectrum in Delhi, especially as it does not have 2G spectrum in the circle, but had dropped out only towards the end after the bid price crossed the Rs 3,200-crore mark.

“We went through the auction logically acquiring circles at right prices based on our calculations,” Mr Sardana said.

Therefore, even though the company has bagged only nine circles, it covers 51 per cent of towns with more than one million population. In comparison, Airtel, which has 13 circles, covers 40 per cent of such towns.

Mr Sardana said that Tata Teleservices will leverage its existing pan India CDMA network to offer EVDO and HSPA+ services on a single handset. EVDO and HSPA+ are two variants of 3G technologies deployed by CDMA and GSM operators respectively.

Since Tata Tele has a dual technology licence, it can leverage both EVDO and HSPA+.

Already Tata Teleservices offers high-speed data access on the EVDO platform on data cards and select mobile phones.

On the issue of pricing, Mr Sardana said that price of 3G services is already low in India compared with other markets and, therefore, there is not much scope for further reduction in the near future.

Source: The Hindu (Online)

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