 "EGom to discuss vacation of spectrum today")
New Delhi: A panel of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will meet today to discuss the contentious issue of vacation of spectrum by government agencies, including Defence Ministry.
“The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) is meeting tomorrow and will discuss the issues relating to vacation of spectrum,” a Telecom Ministry official said on Sunday.
[caption id=“attachment_233749” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“This will be the first meeting of the EGoM after Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal announced that the government will auction spectrum that can be used for operating 4-G (fourth generation) telecom services. AFP”]  [/caption]
This will be the first meeting of the EGoM after Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal announced that the government will auction spectrum that can be used for operating 4-G (fourth generation) telecom services. The Telecom Ministry wants that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Defence Ministry and Space Department should vacate the spectrum which has been lying unused so that additional airwaves can be made available to telecom operators.
As per the MoU between Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Defence Ministry earlier, the armed forces are to vacate 25 MHz of airwaves for 3G services and 20 units of airwaves for 2G services. Out of this, the Defence Ministry had vacated 15 MHz for 3G services and 15 MHz for 2G spectrum.
For getting additional airwaves, the Telecom Ministry had agreed to put in place an alternate communication network for defence based on optical fibre network. The project, however, is stuck because of financial constraints.
As per the DoT proposal, satellite and broadcasting services will have to shift to other frequency bands suitable for such communication. The DoT’s working group has proposed that compensation should be paid to those agencies whose services would be required to be shifted to other frequencies.
The EGoM will also deliberate on the quantum of funds and other formalities required for reallocation of airwaves.
PTI
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