Byline: Joji Thomas Philip

NEW DELHI: After successful trial runs and having proved that the telecom services in the 'guard band of the 1800 MHz' does not interfere with the operations of existing GSM and CDMA players in the country, Vavasi Telegence, chaired by telecom consultant Sam

Vavasi is of the of the view that its application should not be caught in the ongoing tussle for radio frequencies between service providers GSM and CDMA players, since it has applied for spectrum in the 'guard band of the 1800 MHz frequency', which is currently not used by any of the existing telecom players in India.

The company's MD Farid Arifuddin told ET that Vavasi has lined up $6 billion in investments for a 100 million lines mobile network in the country. Vavasi has also tied up with handset vendors for mobile phones that can support this technological platform. The handset prices range from $20 to $700, Mr Arifuddin said.

"We have submitted results of the trial runs (done in MP) to the DoT, which have proved that mobile services in this frequency do not interfere with GSM and CDMA services. Vavasi, already runs a network in this frequency in Mongolia, with about 50,000 customers, and we are currently in the process of scaling this up to 250,000 lines. We hope to complete the process by June, 08," Mr Arifuddin said. 'We have received a positive response from the DoT," he added.

ET had first reported that the DoT had granted the company trail spectrum in Madhya Pradesh. Vavasi though is confronted with a unique problem. The company had applied for a pan-India licence on October 1, but the DoT, under the current first-come first-served basis for allocation of licences which come bundled with start-up spectrum, is only processing the applications of those companies which have applied before September 25.

"This is because there is not likely to be any 2G spectrum for the those who have applied after this date. We should not be part of this since the frequencies we seek are not used by any existing operators. In about 7 circles, the guard band of 1800 MHz is already available. In the other circles, it is being used by para-military forces, but is in the process of being vacated," Mr Arifuddin added.

Vavasi is also set to make India as a hub for the development and installation of this technology platform which the company calls Next Generation 1, and is derived from the Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access. This technology is touted to be more advanced that the CDMA and GSM platforms. It is also said to offer higher network speeds and is considered more efficient.