The Hindu Business Line : Pay Rs 5,000 cr for spectrum, DoT tells defence forces

New Delhi, Aug 10 The rift between the defence forces and the Department of Telecom (DoT)over spectrum has further intensified. While defence has refused to vacate till alternative communication lines are in place, DoT has now taken an aggressive stance by asking the armed forces to give up unused spectrum immediately and pay Rs 5,000 crore annually for the radio frequency that they have been using for their internal communication. DoT has also taken a legal view to establish that the ownership of radio frequency rests with the Ministry of Communication.

“We have taken a legal opinion and as per the Telegraph Act of 1885, ownership of spectrum is with DoT. Therefore the defence cannot say that it will not vacate spectrum which has been given to them even before mobile services existed. We have also undertaken a scientific study on the spectrum use by the armed forces and have found out that at least 60 Mhz of frequency band is lying unused. This can be used by mobile operators. We have also asked them to pay for spectrum that they have been using,” said a highly placed Government source.

The defence forces refused to vacate any spectrum until an optical fibre cable network is set up for all the three divisions of the armed forces at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore. This was contrary to the earlier agreed deal between DoT and the Air Force whereby the latter was expected to release 42 Mhs of spectrum by the end of August. DoT in return had agreed to set up a cable network only for the Air Force. But now the defence ministry has asked DoT to set up a similar cable network for the Army and Navy before any spectrum is vacated.

DoT, however, does not want to cough up more money since the Army and Navy only have about 3 Mhz frequency while the larger chunk is with the Air Force.

The Communications Minister, Mr A. Raja, is meeting the Defence Minister, Mr A.K Antony, and the External Affairs Minister and Chairman of Group of Ministers (on spectrum), Mr Pranab Mukherjee, to resolve the issue before the GoM meets.

The dispute has caused delay in release of spectrum to mobile operators who are facing a huge crunch in bandwidth. Most of the existing operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar have more subscribers than what the spectrum allotted to them can accommodate. And with more than 5 million subscribers being added every month, the lack of spectrum has taken a toll on the quality of mobile services.

There are also more than 50 new applicants for cellular licences that are awaiting release of spectrum. This includes Idea Cellular, Spice Telecom, Aircel, HFCL and ByCell. The stand off between the two Ministries could mean further delays for these operators. “Once we get the spectrum vacated we will see how best we can allocate it. Right now we have the subscriber-linked policy and if we have to change it to an auction we will have to go to the Cabinet with the proposal,” said the official.