Telecom companies on Tuesday took divergent views on the extent to which spectrum trading should be allowed.
During a meeting with the TRAI Chairman Rahul Khullar, chief executive officers of incumbent players, including Airtel and Vodafone, said that all spectrum, even those allocated through administrative process, should be allowed to be traded. This was opposed to by new players such as Reliance Jio which said that airwaves bought through auction should be traded.
Telecom regulator is expected to release its recommendations on spectrum trading by January 25.
“It was a good initiative by the TRAI and the industry put its views forward. To a great extent consensus was arrived at most issues,” said Arvind Bali, CEO, Videocon Telecom.
Spectrum trading is a mechanism whereby rights and any associated obligations to use spectrum are transferred from one party to another through a market-based exchange for a certain price. Currently spectrum trading is not allowed in India.
The TRAI, however, said that only the spectrum either obtained through auction or on which telecom companies have paid the prescribed market value to the government should be allowed to be traded. Currently, most of the spectrum holdings of incumbent telecom companies have been allocated to them through administrative pricing mechanism and not through auctions.