Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Sep 08, 2007
ePaper
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Sep 08, 2007 ePaper |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications Government - Security Panel to identify unused spectrum with Defence
Thomas K. Thomas New Delhi, Sept. 7 The Group of Ministers on spectrum has decided to set up a technical committee to identify frequency bands which are currently not being used by the defence forces. The technical committee will submit its report to the GoM after which a decision will be taken on how to make spectrum available for mobile use. DoT’s claims
Senior Government officials told Business Line that the Department of Telecom claimed during the meeting that the defence forces had nearly 60 Mhz of spectrum which was not being used. DoT has told the Defence Ministry that either t he spectrum should be vacated or the armed forces should pay about Rs 5,000 crore annually as spectrum charges. The defence forces, on the other hand, have asked DoT to set up an alternate medium of communication before they can vacate spectrum. DoT’s argument is that since the defence forces were not using a large chunk of radio waves, they should release it immediately as it would not have any impact on their internal communication requirements. The technical committee, which will go into the details of the radio frequency held by the defence, will comprise representatives from the national security advisor, DoT and the defence. The GoM headed by the External Affairs Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, met on Friday for the first time after it was set up by the Prime Minister a year back. The decisions taken by the GoM will have major ramification for the mobile industry. The GoM is expected to formulate a long-term strategy for allocating radio frequency among various users. One of the formulas being proposed is to form specific bands for different users similar to what countries such as the US have done. Spectrum crisis
DoT had earlier admitted that the current crisis over spectrum was due to unstructured allocation policy being followed in the country wherein different users such as the defence, railways and utility companies were given radio waves wherever capacity was available. But now with mobile services growing at a rapid pace, operators need more bandwidth. There are at least 150 applications for spectrum awaiting clearance from DoT.
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