Telcos take a u-turn, says no need for additional spectrum after fall in demand

On March 20, the COAI wrote again to the DoT and urged the Centre to consider allocating additional spectrum, from the 1800 MHz band, to the telcos on a short term basis.

However, in the latest clarification, COAI has submitted that the telcos, acting in concert with the DoT, had managed to flatten the traffic demand on telecom networks.

COAI clarified that one of the major factors contributing to this lowering of demand was the move by various video streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon to shift from high definition (HD) content to standard definition (SD).

On March 22, the COAI had written to the DOT, seeking the government’s intervention in urging the streaming platforms to dilute the video quality.

At the time, the telcos had argued that with people working from home, there was a heightened demand owing to traffic on these platforms, which in turn was causing strain on telecom infra.

In response to the concerns raised, all major streaming platforms announced that they would be migrating their HD content to SD, to help ensure continuity of seamless connectivity.

Further, the COAI's latest clarification also attributed the fall in the demand to telcos working with various municipalities to bring sealed towers back-on line. COAI also noted that various measures by telcos to redistribute traffic on network have also helped resolve the issue of strain on networks.

Rajan Mathews, director general of COAI, said, "Based on the present condition of member networks, we believe there is no such present need and operators remain confident the steps they have taken presently can maintain the reliability and quality of their networks and services."