After going back and forth for over three years, the Department of Telecom and the Ministry of Defence seem to have thrashed out their differences over spectrum.
At a recently held meeting between high ranking officials of the two departments, considerable ground was made on a number of outstanding issues, including vacation of additional 3G spectrum by the Defence.
Both the DoT and the Finance Ministry had asked the Ministry of Defence to swap 15 MHz of 3G spectrum with same amount of airwaves in another band. During the meeting, representatives from the Defence Ministry gave a commitment that the proposal to swap spectrum bands will be taken up on priority.
The DoT also ceded ground on a number of issues. For example, in the 1800 MHz band, the initial plan was to auction all available spectrum.The Defence was against auctioning this band because it is using parts of it. During the meeting, it was agreed that the DoT will go ahead with the auction but will keep out the part being used by the armed forces. This could, however, mean that telecom companies may not get contiguous spectrum in the next auction.
900 MHz band
In the 900 MHz band, the DoT has accepted the Defence Ministry’s stand against refarming. The DoT has taken a view that although the TRAI has recommended refarming 900 MHz band, there are no plans to immediately adopt it.
Under the refarming plan, the Government was looking to shift existing GSM operators from 900 MHz band to 1800 MHz band. The Defence was worried that if the shift happens, then they would have to give up their part of the 1800 MHz band. But now, the thinking is that there will not be any reservation for existing players in any frequency band which means that the operators will have to buy whatever’s available.
The DoT also agreed to create the much-delayed Defence Spectrum Band with immediate effect. This was getting delayed because part of the proposed band is being used for some other application and the DoT could not find a way to shift the existing users. The DoT has proposed to create the Defence Band minus the part which is under use till a solution is found.