Telecom Commission finalises spectrum sharing, trading norms

Inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission on Thursday said it has finalised its views on the much-awaited spectrum sharing and trading guidelines and the proposals will be sent to the Cabinet for final approval by month-end. “We have finalised the view on spectrum-sharing and trading guidelines. We will try to send the norms to the Cabinet by the end of this month,” Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg said after the meeting. The guidelines will be first sent to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and after his approval a Cabinet note will be prepared. Telecom Commission, the highest decision making body of Department of Telecom (DoT), discussed the clarifications given by sectoral regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on some of its recommendations. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has reiterated its stand on most of the recommendations on spectrum-sharing and trading guidelines, while clarifying that radiowaves acquired through trading can also be shared. TRAI also stood by recommendations of allowing operators to share all spectrum including 3G. The Department of Telecom had in April sought clarifications from TRAI regarding spectrum-sharing and trading guidelines. The guidelines will allow telecom companies to share their unutilised radiowaves with other service providers in the same telecom circle. TRAI had last year recommended sharing of all categories of telecom radiowaves held by operators, including spectrum allocated at old price of Rs. 1,658 crore, or assigned without auction. The regulator also recommended allowing the trading of spectrum. As of now, only the government is allowed to allocate spectrum to telecom firms through auctions. Once trading is allowed, it is expected to increase efficient use of radiowaves by enabling telecom operators, who have a lower subscriber base or unutilised spectrum, to trade in it. PTI