The Hindu Business Line : Raja wants GoM meeting on spectrum issue put off

With sharp differences emerging between various Ministries over vacation of radio spectrum for mobile services, Communication and IT Minister Mr A. Raja has sought the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh’s approval to defer the meeting of the Group of Ministers headed by External Affairs Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee.

He wants the issues with the Defence forces and the Department of Space to be reconciled first.

These two organisations had expressed concern at being asked to vacate spectrum in favour of cellular operators without getting an alternate viable medium of communication.

According to highly-placed sources in the Ministry of Communication, Mr Raja has requested the Prime Minister to defer the meeting since the Wireless Planning and Co-ordination wing of the Department of Telecom is reconciling these concerns and there was no point in holding the meeting until a resolution is in place. “The Group would be able to deliberate on the issues relating to vacation of spectrum in a more meaningful manner after the process is completed to a large extent,” said a top Government source.

“The minister has written to the Prime Minister that since the WPC, which is the national spectrum management agency, will take more time in reconciling this spectrum usage with these organisations, the meeting should be deferred.”

This means that mobile operators, which are facing huge spectrum crunch, will have to wait longer before then can get additional radio frequency for offering services.

For consumers, this means that the quality of service will continue to deteriorate as mobile operators pack in more subscribers in the existing spectrum.

In his letter to Dr Singh, Mr Raja said: “Spectrum inadequacy will not only hamper the growth but also adversely affect the quality of service. The spectrum congestion is already hampering telecom operators in their bid to expand network and consumer base.”

As per the proposal worked out by the WPC, the Defence forces are expected to release 42 Mhz once the first phase of the optical fibre cable project is completed by August 2007.

In total, WPC has earmarked 135 Mhz, which will be vacated by the Defence to mobile operators for both third generation services and existing second generation services.

WPC is also negotiating with the Department of Space for vacating radio frequency for broadband services.

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