Indian GSM operators ahead of China: COAI

The GSM operators in the country are serving 300 per cent more subscribers per mega hertz (MHz) than China, a criterion that reflects growth of a telecom network.

The country's GSM operators were serving 3.36 million users per MHz during GSM telephony's 12 years of existence, compared with 0.85 million subscribers in China, according to a letter sent to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) by the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI).

The COAI, the apex body of GSM operators, was refuting allegations that China was serving 1.5 times more subscribers per MHz than India.

COAI Secretary General TV Ramachandran alleged that "contentionsof vested interests have suppressed the extremely important factor that China had introduced mobile services seven years before India".

Elaborating this, he stated that using the same benchmark period of 12 years of service, the Indian GSM operators were serving 3.36 million subscribers per Mhz by December 2006. China had served 0.85 million subscribers by December 1999.

This is based on a calculation of 125 million GSM users with 37.2 MHz of spectrum, while Chinese GSM operators were serving only 0.85 million subscribers per MHz (38 million GSM mobile subscribers with 45 MHz of spectrum).

Subscribers per MHz is a criterion that was reflective of the growth of a network and hence comparisons using this parameter must take into account similar network maturity and other demographic variants, he added.