CDMA player to foray into GSM space

The government has given the goahead for existing telecom providers to expand their services by using alternate technology according this ET story. What this means is that existing CDMA players can offer GSM services in all the circles they are currently serving and vice versa for GSM players.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani promoted Reliance Comm's application for providing GSM services on a pan-India basis gets approved with this policy direction and Reliance Comm's spectrum needs are virtually assured.

Subscriber-based based spectrum allocation and spectrum auctions are currently not in favour. Existing players would be able to get additional spectrum in areas where they are not present, on a first-come-first-serve basis. Bharti Airtel which is the largest GSM player and is present in almost all circles would find this as a downside.

The need for existing pan-India GSM players is to increase their subscriber base and consolidate their positions. However the policy direction has an effect of opening the market in an unprecedented manner.

Cellular services are set to see fierce competition with this move. If the consumers are benefited then so be it.