Even as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has sought the views of stakeholders on allocation of new spectrum, a majority of broadcasters feel that it is not possible for them to vacate the spectrum they are using unless compatible spectrum is made available in C-band itself.
In their comments to a Consultation Paper issued by Trai early this month, broadcasters like Ten Sports and TV Today network have sought compatible spectrum so that consumers receiving software via C-Band can continue to do so.
Zee Network has, on the other hand, sought a complete withdrawal of the Consultation Paper until such time that the government draws up a long-term spectrum policy.
In its paper of 3 May, Trai had sought opinions on issues like spectrum eligibility and maximum amount of the spectrum to be allocated to each bidder on allocation and pricing of 2.3-2.4 GHz, 2.5-2.69 GHz and 3.3-3.6 GHz bands. All these are bands that can be used for 3G services, which enables video and data transfer over wireless networks.
The Consultation Paper was a follow-up on its recommendations on allocation and pricing of 3G spectrum on 27 September 2006 when spectrum in 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz bands were not available.
TV Today wants the notification to be kept in abeyance and detailed consultations carried out with all the stakeholders so that the old and essential satellite based services are not made to shift to another part of the spectrum and suitable solutions are found for the entry of services like WiMAX.
Pointing out that the non-interference aspect has not been proven by experiments so far, TV Today says \"even outside band (above 3.6) is likely to be affected due to high power terrestrial transmission on the proposed band (3.3 to 3.6 GHz).\"
TV Today also says that it is not clear whether satellite compatibility assessment studies have been carried out for identifying the band 3.3-3.4 GHz for BWA. \"We understand that if additional frequency in 3.4 - 3.6 band is allocated for IMT which is presently used by satellite based operators, that may adversely affect the availability of frequency to the existing operators and may affect their business adversely.\"
Zee has taken an extreme stance, asking Trai to withdraw the consultation paper. Zee wants Trai to come out with a fresh paper which would reflect the long term policy of the country for C-band satellite services. Spectrum should be reserved for such services free of interference.
The Cable and Satellite Broadcasters Association of Asia (Casbaa) which claims to represent the views of members in 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, said it would oppose further moves to assign spectrum in the 3.4-3.6 GHz bands to BWA applications. It points out that the ITU clearly noted that existing assignments in these bands must be protected.
International experience in other countries as well as a careful program of field testing has demonstrated that allocation of spectrum in these frequencies to wireless applications will result in major interference problems with fixed satellite service receiving stations operating in the C-band. India’s own Department of Space has confirmed this, Casbaa has pointed out.
The spectrum for these applications must be appropriate, and must not pose conflicts with the spectrum already in use for satellite services, especially in the C-band and Extended C-band. \"For that reason, we support use of the 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz bands. Those bands offer significant scope for innovation with the potential for introduction of new technologies, services, applications and devices, and their potential should be fully explored,\" Casbaa says.
India’s situation is very different from that in North America, Europe or Japan. In India, the C-bands are in active and ubiquitous use throughout the country, delivering satellite services to cities and towns in every state. There is no way that use of these bands by wireless services could be conducted without severely impacting availability of C-band satellite signals, Casbaa says, adding that C-band satellite distribution offers affordable, high-availability coverage of very large geographical areas in tropical climate zones - such as India. Those signals carry, among other critical applications, broadcast programming that is conveyed by cable operators to 78 million Indian homes.
Casbaa adds: \"We believe the Authority should recognize the importance of these uses of C-band to such a broad swathe of the Indian population, and also the growing body of evidence that assignment of adjacent frequencies – and not just in-band frequencies – to wireless applications is not compatible with continued operation of fixed satellite services. In light of continuing developments since the Authority’s last consideration of these spectrum allocation issues, consideration of using the 3.4-3.6 GHz bands for wireless applications should now be discontinued.\"
Furthermore, it says assignment of spectrum in the 3.3 GHz band for wireless services could also generate interference with adjacent C-band satellite services. \"We would urge that before considering use of this band, technical studies should be conducted to confirm that and how wireless applications will not unduly interfere with satellite in 3.4-4.2 GHz,\" Casbaa says.
In its response, Tata Communications says ideally 30 MHz per operator is required to offer good quality BWA services. If, however, only limited amount of spectrum is available in the 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz band, then in order to have more operators, thereby improving quality of service and affordable price points for the customers, spectrum should be auctioned whereby one operator cannot bid for more than 20 Mhz. This shall allow for up to four operators to offer BWA services.
Tata Communications further adds: \"BWA technologies have a direct bearing on size of channels deployed; hence it is always advisable to have larger chunks of spectrum per operator resulting in operator being able to provide better and faster broadband services and ensuring better service levels. Worldwide, BWA spectrum has typically been auctioned in chunks of 30MHz, 50 MHz, and sometimes even higher blocks. Spectrum allocation of 30MHz lends an operator to deploy 10MHz channel size products. It is also essential that the auction process ensures that spectrum is not “fragmented” into small spectrum blocks, which would greatly reduce the efficiency of running broadband services.\"
On a question about reserve price for the spectrum in 3.3.-3.6 GHz band, Tata Communications says the \"reserve price is relevant when a particular band is expected to be auctioned. If and when available spectrum is auctioned in 3.3-3.6 Ghz band, a reserve price can be determined at that time.\"
But all licensed UASLs, Category A and Category B ISPs should be eligible for bidding for the spectrum in the bands of 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz, Tata Communications adds. The services that can be deployed under this BWA spectrum should be clearly defined and be common across various categories of licenses.
Sify says the reserve price for the spectrum should be made equal to 50 per cent of the reserve price recommended for the 3G spectrum. Trai must take a holistic view of spectrum management and appraise best international practices and their aptness in the Indian context.
Sify also feels that vacating spectrum and consequently migrating to a different band is a capital intensive activity as the existing equipment would have to be replaced by new ones. \"Internet Service Providers should be allowed to retain the spectrum in 2.5 GHz, and to ensure that sufficient spectrum is available for BWA systems. The authority should further recommend DoT to immediately coordinate 200 MHz spectrum from Isro,\" Sify adds.
Nokia says reserve price for the auction of spectrum in 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz should be based on the characteristics and attractivity of the spectrum. The allocation and pricing methodology in the above three bands could be the same as has been observed by the country for IMT/3G services in the 2.1 GHz band.
The proposed differential pricing by subsidization in spectrum allocations for Broadband services/systems may bring increased broadband penetration in the short term but would create problems and complexities in the long term, specially related to utilization of spectrum/frequency bands. \"We believe that uniform spectrum pricing policy for the systems rendering same services should be implemented; it would promote convergence and technology neutrality.\"
Indiantelevision.com's > Digital Edge > Spectrum issue: Broadcasters do not want vacation of C-band
In their comments to a Consultation Paper issued by Trai early this month, broadcasters like Ten Sports and TV Today network have sought compatible spectrum so that consumers receiving software via C-Band can continue to do so.
Zee Network has, on the other hand, sought a complete withdrawal of the Consultation Paper until such time that the government draws up a long-term spectrum policy.
In its paper of 3 May, Trai had sought opinions on issues like spectrum eligibility and maximum amount of the spectrum to be allocated to each bidder on allocation and pricing of 2.3-2.4 GHz, 2.5-2.69 GHz and 3.3-3.6 GHz bands. All these are bands that can be used for 3G services, which enables video and data transfer over wireless networks.
The Consultation Paper was a follow-up on its recommendations on allocation and pricing of 3G spectrum on 27 September 2006 when spectrum in 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz bands were not available.
TV Today wants the notification to be kept in abeyance and detailed consultations carried out with all the stakeholders so that the old and essential satellite based services are not made to shift to another part of the spectrum and suitable solutions are found for the entry of services like WiMAX.
Pointing out that the non-interference aspect has not been proven by experiments so far, TV Today says \"even outside band (above 3.6) is likely to be affected due to high power terrestrial transmission on the proposed band (3.3 to 3.6 GHz).\"
TV Today also says that it is not clear whether satellite compatibility assessment studies have been carried out for identifying the band 3.3-3.4 GHz for BWA. \"We understand that if additional frequency in 3.4 - 3.6 band is allocated for IMT which is presently used by satellite based operators, that may adversely affect the availability of frequency to the existing operators and may affect their business adversely.\"
Zee has taken an extreme stance, asking Trai to withdraw the consultation paper. Zee wants Trai to come out with a fresh paper which would reflect the long term policy of the country for C-band satellite services. Spectrum should be reserved for such services free of interference.
The Cable and Satellite Broadcasters Association of Asia (Casbaa) which claims to represent the views of members in 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, said it would oppose further moves to assign spectrum in the 3.4-3.6 GHz bands to BWA applications. It points out that the ITU clearly noted that existing assignments in these bands must be protected.
International experience in other countries as well as a careful program of field testing has demonstrated that allocation of spectrum in these frequencies to wireless applications will result in major interference problems with fixed satellite service receiving stations operating in the C-band. India’s own Department of Space has confirmed this, Casbaa has pointed out.
The spectrum for these applications must be appropriate, and must not pose conflicts with the spectrum already in use for satellite services, especially in the C-band and Extended C-band. \"For that reason, we support use of the 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz bands. Those bands offer significant scope for innovation with the potential for introduction of new technologies, services, applications and devices, and their potential should be fully explored,\" Casbaa says.
India’s situation is very different from that in North America, Europe or Japan. In India, the C-bands are in active and ubiquitous use throughout the country, delivering satellite services to cities and towns in every state. There is no way that use of these bands by wireless services could be conducted without severely impacting availability of C-band satellite signals, Casbaa says, adding that C-band satellite distribution offers affordable, high-availability coverage of very large geographical areas in tropical climate zones - such as India. Those signals carry, among other critical applications, broadcast programming that is conveyed by cable operators to 78 million Indian homes.
Casbaa adds: \"We believe the Authority should recognize the importance of these uses of C-band to such a broad swathe of the Indian population, and also the growing body of evidence that assignment of adjacent frequencies – and not just in-band frequencies – to wireless applications is not compatible with continued operation of fixed satellite services. In light of continuing developments since the Authority’s last consideration of these spectrum allocation issues, consideration of using the 3.4-3.6 GHz bands for wireless applications should now be discontinued.\"
Furthermore, it says assignment of spectrum in the 3.3 GHz band for wireless services could also generate interference with adjacent C-band satellite services. \"We would urge that before considering use of this band, technical studies should be conducted to confirm that and how wireless applications will not unduly interfere with satellite in 3.4-4.2 GHz,\" Casbaa says.
In its response, Tata Communications says ideally 30 MHz per operator is required to offer good quality BWA services. If, however, only limited amount of spectrum is available in the 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz band, then in order to have more operators, thereby improving quality of service and affordable price points for the customers, spectrum should be auctioned whereby one operator cannot bid for more than 20 Mhz. This shall allow for up to four operators to offer BWA services.
Tata Communications further adds: \"BWA technologies have a direct bearing on size of channels deployed; hence it is always advisable to have larger chunks of spectrum per operator resulting in operator being able to provide better and faster broadband services and ensuring better service levels. Worldwide, BWA spectrum has typically been auctioned in chunks of 30MHz, 50 MHz, and sometimes even higher blocks. Spectrum allocation of 30MHz lends an operator to deploy 10MHz channel size products. It is also essential that the auction process ensures that spectrum is not “fragmented” into small spectrum blocks, which would greatly reduce the efficiency of running broadband services.\"
On a question about reserve price for the spectrum in 3.3.-3.6 GHz band, Tata Communications says the \"reserve price is relevant when a particular band is expected to be auctioned. If and when available spectrum is auctioned in 3.3-3.6 Ghz band, a reserve price can be determined at that time.\"
But all licensed UASLs, Category A and Category B ISPs should be eligible for bidding for the spectrum in the bands of 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz, Tata Communications adds. The services that can be deployed under this BWA spectrum should be clearly defined and be common across various categories of licenses.
Sify says the reserve price for the spectrum should be made equal to 50 per cent of the reserve price recommended for the 3G spectrum. Trai must take a holistic view of spectrum management and appraise best international practices and their aptness in the Indian context.
Sify also feels that vacating spectrum and consequently migrating to a different band is a capital intensive activity as the existing equipment would have to be replaced by new ones. \"Internet Service Providers should be allowed to retain the spectrum in 2.5 GHz, and to ensure that sufficient spectrum is available for BWA systems. The authority should further recommend DoT to immediately coordinate 200 MHz spectrum from Isro,\" Sify adds.
Nokia says reserve price for the auction of spectrum in 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz should be based on the characteristics and attractivity of the spectrum. The allocation and pricing methodology in the above three bands could be the same as has been observed by the country for IMT/3G services in the 2.1 GHz band.
The proposed differential pricing by subsidization in spectrum allocations for Broadband services/systems may bring increased broadband penetration in the short term but would create problems and complexities in the long term, specially related to utilization of spectrum/frequency bands. \"We believe that uniform spectrum pricing policy for the systems rendering same services should be implemented; it would promote convergence and technology neutrality.\"
Indiantelevision.com's > Digital Edge > Spectrum issue: Broadcasters do not want vacation of C-band