Reliance Communications will now be able to offer GSM-based mobile services in all its existing circles. HFCL Infotel, which provides services in Punjab and Shyam Telelink, an operator in Rajasthan, are the other two operators who have been allowed to offer GSM-based mobile services.

In a late evening development on Thursday, the department of telecommunications (DoT) sent faxes to these companies asking them to submit the required licence fee within 15 days. The three companies had applied for GSM spectrum more than a year ago. As the unified access service licences are technology neutral, the DoT, till now, was unable to decide whether they could be allotted GSM spectrum.

GSM and CDMA are two technologies for offering mobile services. GSM is predominant technology in this field. It was developed and adopted by European companies. CDMA is developed by Qualcomm and was adopted mainly by the American companies. It is also used extensively in South Korea. GSM is used all over the world except a few countries. GSM also has the benefit of scale of operations.

In India, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Spice, BSNL and MTNL are major players in GSM space. Reliance is also offering GSM services in a few category B and category C circles besides Kolkata. Major players in CDMA are Reliance, Tata, HFCL and Shyam. Tata did not apply for GSM spectrum.

In its recommendations to the DoT on reforms in licensing regime, the Telecom regulatory Authority of India had recommended that the CDMA operators be allowed to offer GSM-based mobile services. However, they should be charged an additional one-time entry fee equal to that paid by the GSM operators during last round of bidding. For instance, HFCL would be required to pay a licence fee of Rs 150 crore for Punjab circle. For licences all over the country, the licence fee is over Rs 1,350 crore.

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