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Press Trust of India The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asserted that its recommendation of allocating the ‘backhaul’ spectrum bands without auction will help enhance mobile phone signal carrying capacity between two towers, reduce call drops and improve voice and data quality.
The Telecom Commission, the highest-decision making body of the Telecom Department, is likely to meet on May 1 to decide on allocation of spectrum in V-band and E-bands.
TRAI , on whose recommendation allocation of the highly valuable spectrum is done, said spectrum in V-band and E-band even in the most advanced economies is done without auction as these airwaves are used as backhaul and not for carrying access signals to consumers.
TRAI Chairman RS Sharma said the regulator had given its recommendation on allocation of spectrum in V and E bands way back in August 2014 after consulting with all stakeholders.
While all airwaves used for transmitting signals to mobile phones, called access spectrum, is and will be auctioned, the backhaul spectrum for augmenting signals between mobile towers is not, he said.
“The usage of backhaul is different from the access. Access is like a cloud it is area-wise, while backhaul is from point to point,” Sharma said, adding that backhaul spectrum of between 11 and 20 GHz is, even today, given on administered price only as it cannot be auctioned.
FCFS method
On the use of the controversial ‘first-come, first-serve’ (FCFS) method, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in allocation of 2G spectrum under the UPA-II regime, Sharma said there is a clear difference between access spectrum such as 2G and the backhaul spectrum.
Backhaul spectrum “is a prerequisite for even offering access and its auction is not possible. You can’t auction the access (spectrum) unless you give them promise to offer backhaul, and backhaul cannot be auctioned,” Sharma said.
“You cannot have auction of backhaul spectrum, by its very nature. The nature is very high attenuation in access while backhaul involves point-to-point pencil beams these are the reasons for not giving it through auction,” he added.
He further argued that backhaul radiowaves cannot be used by any operator as access spectrum as this spectrum has very low propagation property.
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