India's BSNL Allocated Additional Radio Spectrum

India's Department of Telecom is reported to have granted BSNL additional radio spectrum in 17 of its licensed circles for use with 2G services. After this change, BSNL will have 10 Mhz spectrum each in 16 circles, while in West Bengal it has around 8.8 Mhz.

A senior DoT official told The Economic Times that the PSU has been allocated 1-2 Mhz of trial spectrum in certain circles and no regular allocation has been made of it.

Currently, only a few operators have a 10Mhz allocation, and generally only in 2-3 circles each, so BSNL has secured a competitive advantage with this move. Additional 2G spectrum has also been set aside in the 1800Mhz band for the 16 circles in the range of 2-3.8 Mhz in the run-up to the total 10 Mhz.

Posted to the site on 5th October 2007