The Hindu Business Line : DoT rapped for delay in spectrum policy

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT has rapped the Department of Telecom for delay in formulating spectrum policy and for not creating a "defence band" specific for the use by armed forces. In its thirty-sixth report, the committee said that it was not inclined to buy the theory given by the DoT that creating an exclusive spectrum band for the Defence would reduce the reusability of spectrum by commercial users like mobile operators.

"The committee rather feels that once such a band is formed, the waiting period for allotment of frequencies would reduce considerably as there would be no need for continuous coordination, vacation and migration, as the experience has shown. The committee is of the opinion that it would be ideal and in the national interest to have a secure and dedicated spectrum allocation for the Defence, should they, over a period of next few years, vacate the required spectrum for the benefit of the commercial needs," the report said.

Spectrum policy

On the proposed spectrum policy, the report said, "Keeping in view the imperative need for a sustained growth in the telecom sector, the committee desires that the spectrum policy be finalised and announced without any further delay."

On the DoT plan to relocate the Defence communications system to an optic fibre cable network being built by BSNL, the committee said that it must find a way to fund the project so that the armed forces can vacate additional spectrum for further expansion of GSM and CDMA cellular services. "The point for discussion is not whether the funds to be provided to the Defence should be reviewed as compensation. The issue continues to remain that without a major reworking of the defence communication network for which they need financial and spectral aid, Defence would not be able to release additional spectrum in favour of commercial service providers."

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