Telecom Spectrum: Must know things!

Spectrum, though very few people know what it is? And how this works? At the same time whole nation knows about the very popular 2G spectrum scam, thanks to the A.Raja for spreading the knowledge. Spectrum refers to a range of radio-waves that are used for communication purposes. Coming to the point spectrum, frequency, radio waves, telecom circles, band all work together and make our life simpler and yet we know very little about it. At first glance all these things look bit confusing but trust me, after reading the whole blog you’ll have better knowledge than the person next to you. Before going directly onto spectrum and auction and band and radio waves first thing to know is frequency.

What is frequency?

Frequency means the number of repetition of wave in a second. The above image clearly shows that the high frequency wave has more repetition than the lower one. This means that in the low frequency waves only three piece of data can travel at a time but in high frequency the number goes higher. So the high frequency waves are better? Yes! and No!, Because the high frequency and low frequency waves both travel the same distance but the high frequency waves need the much more energy for the same distance in comparison to lower one and it carries more data than the lower one. High frequency waves are widely used in Military and governmental communication systems, Aviation air-to-ground communications, Amateur radio. While the lower ones are more usable for long distance communications.

What is Circles, Bands and Spectrum?

India’s telecommunication network is the second largest in the world considering the both fixed as well as mobile users. It is divided into 23 circles in 1995; later, in 2007, Chennai was merged with the Tamil Nadu and now we have only 22 circles. Just as we have different countries managing spectrum in their geographies, we also have different telecom circles. This was a way for the government to manage the spectrum effectively across the country. It is a geographical boundary which make the government control the regulation, management, allocation and auction of spectrum easy.

Telecom Circle Type	Cities / States
Metro	Cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai
A	States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
B	States of Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh
C	States of Himachal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Sikkim

So what exactly Spectrum is? Spectrum refers to the range of radio waves that are used for communication purpose. Like FM radio broadcasting, wireless communication through Bluetooth, Wi-Fi. Smartphones uses the same radio waves to transmit and receive the data, and the frequency and technology which converts this wave’s signal into something useful make it special. So the spectrum means the waves that are there all around us at all time, passing through everything. So where bands does fits in? Well imagine if anyone could be able to transmit or broadcast any message at any frequency? It will result into drastic outcome leading to chaos.

And to overcome that. Government has divide the spectrum into bands. For example if spectrum is a cricket ground than the players are band (Each having unique characteristic or quality). Because if traffic from one source gets into the way of other than this will create a lot of misunderstanding and halt almost every service. This spectrum is divided differently for each technology like the FM channels will work on 100MHz – 200MHz frequency, Telecom spectrum starts from 800MHz and goes up to 2300MHz. then there are unlicensed bands like 2.4GHz for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi.Commonly used bands for cellular communication are 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, and 2300MHz.         

Than what is 2G 3G 4G. Well they are just numbers refer to the generation of the technology used for communication. The oldest of these is obviously 2G, while 4G is still evolving. These technologies were developed to take advantage of different bands, because you can’t use 3G on any phone. Bands might be roads, but only specific types of vehicles can travel on them. That's why your phone needs a modem that can operate on multiple frequencies. So that it connect to the required band and transmit and receive the data.

What telecoms do?

So a telco would have to bid for a spectrum license in all of these circles to offer uninterrupted access across India - otherwise, it would have to connect with another company to offer the services in areas where it lacks spectrum, leading to roaming charges. So for example Airtel holds 900MHz spectrum in Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka but has none in Gujarat and Maharashtra. In those circles, it needs to switch users to a different band to offer its services and this happens without any user intervention, so as long as Airtel has any spectrum (and a license) in the circle, users are unlikely to notice the difference or else it has to use the other companies band to provide the services.

This was all what you need to know about spectrum. And how things work. If you are still confused go through this once again, it’ll take time to digest. Till next post stay updated.