UMTS oppose india for 3G spectrum auction

UMTS Forum, an international body that promotes uptake of UMTS technology for the roll out of 3G mobile telephony is planning to write a letter to telecom department asking it to reject the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or Trai’s recommendations on the auction of 3G spectrum.

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) chairman Jean-Pierre Bienaime said that the Indian government should avoid the auction of the 3G spectrum and the high base price recommended by Trai. “Government should prevent the initial investors from being overburdened and instead of auction government should follow the path of entry price with beauty contest,” Mr Bienaime told this newspaper.

Mr Bienaime said that the bad example of auction of 3G spectrum followed in the UK, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands resulted in high price of 3G spectrum and this jeopardised the profitability of 3G telephony. “Instead government should follow the example of France where the middle path was followed,” said Mr Bienaime. “An operator should be asked to pay a reasonable entry fee and yearly fee on the basis of 3G usage,” added Mr Bienaime.

Mr Bienaime said that equitable spectrum and not necessarily equal spectrum should be allocated between the technologies according to market share and spectrum efficiency. “We recommend that 3G IMT 2000 2GHz spectrum should be released to mobile operators here in due time to keep pace with 3G developments in the rest of the world.