Cabinet to decide on spectrum sharing norms

A decision on telecom spectrum sharing and trading is likely to be taken by the Cabinet by this month.

The Telecom Commission (TC) on Thursday has finalised its views on spectrum sharing and trading guidelines. Though there was no official communication on the view taken by the Commission, expectations are that it would be in line with what the TRAI has suggested.

TRAI had last year had recommended sharing of all categories of telecom radiowaves held by operators, including spectrum allocated at the old price of ₹1,658 crore. It had also recommended allowing the trading of spectrum. As of now, only government is allowed to allocate spectrum to telecom companies through auctions.

According to analysts, the decision will enable telecom companies, which have a lower subscriber base or unutilised spectrum, to trade or share it. “This move would be a boon for the industry, which will ultimately benefit the end consumer through better services. The key would be to allow all spectrum allocated at old or new price and in all bands to share or trade,” Hemant Joshi, Partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells, said.

“We are pleased that the matter has been pushed to the decision maker though we don’t know what final recommendations are going to the Cabinet. But we hope it would go along with what TRAI has recommended as that will be beneficial for all,” Rajan Mathews, Director-General of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said.

In another development, the Department of Telecom on Thursday said it has written to TRAI to suggest a disincentive mechanism to tackle problems of frequent call drops.

“We have asked TRAI to analyse the issue and suggest what kind of in-built disincentive mechanism could be used for call drops,” Rakesh Garg, Secretary, DoT, said here after the Telecom Commission meeting.

He said that one of the possible architectures could be in the form of giving free minutes to customers in lieu of call drops.

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