The Hindu Business Line : Ministries differ on spectrum auction for mobile TV

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Ministries differ on spectrum auction for mobile TV

TRAI forced to defer its recommendations

The development comes even as differences between the defence, commerce, finance and telecom ministries have stalled the spectrum allocation for mobile services.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Dec. 19 Differences between the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and the Ministry of Communications over auctioning spectrum for mobile TV services have forced the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to delay its recommendations on the same.

The regulator had earlier said that it was in favour of auctioning spectrum for mobile TV in line with global trends.

TRAI officials said that since the issue concerned both the ministries, it was important that regulations are made accordingly. While spectrum and mobile is under the Telecom Ministry, TV is under the I&B Ministry.

The development comes even as differences between the defence, commerce, finance and telecom ministries have stalled the spectrum allocation for mobile services.

In this case, the Telecom Ministry is against auctioning while the ministries of finance and commerce are in favour of auction as it will rake in more revenues for the Government.

Boosting competition

For mobile TV services, TRAI had earlier said that it was planning to allow not only the licence holders of Unified Access Services and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service to bid for spectrum, but also a new set of players operating in segments such as Direct-To-Home and Internet TV.

The move would have intensified competition in the broadcasting sector, as it would allow new players for offering mobile TV services.

Currently, broadcasting services are being offered by Cable TV operators, DTH service providers and Internet Television Protocol players. Mobile television services refer to provision of television services to subscribers for viewing on handheld or portable devices. Technically, there are two main ways of delivering television content to mobile devices. The television content could be provided via mobile telecommunications networks or by using broadcasting technologies.

So far only Doordarshan has commercially launched mobile TV. Mobile operators are offering video clips to their subscribers but can foray into full fledged TV content only after third generation services are launched.