indo-asian news services, New Delhi, June 11: In a move that can potentially improve cell phone services, check call drops and also lower tariffs, the Telecom Commission Thursday paved the way for sharing of airwaves, or radio frequency spectrum, among operators.
The proposal recommendation will now go to the cabinet for a final nod. “We have finalised our view on spectrum-sharing and trading guidelines. We will try to send the norms to the Cabinet by the month-end,” telecom secretary Rakesh Garg said after a meeting of an inter-ministerial panel to deliberate on the issue.
Even as the details of the recommendations were not immediately disclosed, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had in July last year made its suggestions under which two licencees in an area with the same band of spectrum could pool or trade this scarce resource.
“The basic objective of spectrum sharing is to provide an opportunity to telecom service providers to pool their spectrum holdings and gain better spectral efficiency. Spectrum sharing would involve both the service providers utilising the spectrum,” the watchdog had said. “The leasing of spectrum is not permitted.”
Following the recommendations, and comments from the operators, the Telecom Commission had sought some clarifications from TRAI in April. The clause proposed by the watchdog that spectrum can be shared only in the same frequency bands had raised concerns.
Reacting to the developments Thursday, Rajan Mathews, the director general of the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) told IANS that spectrum sharing will go a long way in helping the aggregation of this resource.
“It will particularly help in having contiguous spectrum. This is essential for decent 3G and 4G services,” Mathews said. “Spectrum trading and sharing will allow operators to pool their active infrastructure,” he said, referring to the passive sharing in the form of towers.
“We expected the sharing and trading norms to come into active play within three-four months from the cabinet approval. The smaller players will benefit the most.”
PMO intervenes, hospitals told to allow mobile towers
New Delhi: On a directive from the Prime Minister’s Office, local authorities in the national capital have been asked to help telecom operators set up necessary infrastructure like mobile towers, to overcome the menace of call-drops, especially in hospitals. “It has been brought to the notice of this office that patients and other visitors to hospitals, particularly in Delhi, are finding it difficult to communicate through mobiles due to poor connectivity,” said a PMO note to the Department of Telecommunications. As a follow-up, a memo from the telecom department has not only desired that hospital authorities permit telecom service providers (TSPs) to install base towers and other infrastructure, but also charge nominal rates, without treating the process as a means for revenue generation.
