So for the benefit of the new readers who have just recently joined the TT family I'd like to give a brief introduction to the spectrum chart. Couple of years back one of our authors Tharun George put in his efforts to compile a visually lucid chart with all the details of the spectrum held by various operators across 6 bands in 22 circles. This chart is of great use to telecom enthusiasts who like to keep a track of the spectrum holdings of various operators so as to know the kind of bandwidth that they can offer in a particular circle.
Over the years this chart changes with the spectrum holding of operators either increasing or decreasing due to spectrum trading, license expiry or fresh spectrum purchased in auctions. There have been many changes since our last iteration of the spectrum sheet with Airtel acquiring the 2300 MHz spectrum of Augere and Aircel in 9 circles combined and 1800 MHz spectrum of Videocon in 6 circles. With Rcom merging in the 850 MHz spectrum of MTS with itself and the liberalisation of its own 850 MHz spectrum in 20 circles and the spectrum trading with Jio in the same band in select circles.
Of course the picture is still rapidly changing with many more such events in the pipeline like the impending merger of wireless businesses of Rcom and Aircel which will also lead to the pooling of their spectrum, the liberalisation of Rcom's 1800 MHz spectrum in 14 circles post the merger. The possibility of weaker players like Tata Docomo and Telenor being acquired by one of the incumbent operators and the most impactful being the spectrum auction in September this year when over 2200 MHz of spectrum across 7 bands will be put up for sale. And we hope to update the chart further with those changes somewhere in October.
For now you can head right over to the updated spectrum holding chart 2016 and check out the changes. We've also included the band numbers along side the frequency for the benefit of readers who get confused between the two. Please bear in mind that it has taken a lot of physical effort in drafting the chart and there may be minor errors here and there, if you believe something is wrongly depicted kindly drop a mail to tharun518@telecomtalk.info and he will get it sorted in the next update. Keep reading TelecomTalk for the most up to date happenings in the Indian telecom industry.
