Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has opposed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) proposal to take back the spectrum it held in the 800 MHz band ahead of the CDMA spectrum auction.

Earlier, in its pre-auction recommendation for auctioning spectrum in the 800 MHz band, the regulatory body had put forward this proposal to enable the government to carve out a contiguous block of pan-India CDMA spectrum. TRAI has recommended that BSNL be allowed to keep only one block of spectrum (1.25 MHz) in all service areas except Assam, Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir where it could retain its current CDMA spectrum holdings of 2.5 MHz each.

At present, BSNL has 2.5 MHz of CDMA spectrum in 19 circles and 3.75 MHz of spectrum in Kerala. Citing a steady fall in BSNL’s CDMA subscriber base, TRAI has suggested that the operator may be allowed to just hold 1.25 MHz of spectrum in the 800 MHz to continue providing services to rural customers.

BSNL has claimed that TRAI’s proposal if accepted by DoT, will lead the loss-making operator to make additional investments worth Rs 3 billion by migrating the majority of its 10 million-plus CDMA customers to lower frequencies, thereby compromising on quality of the service.