TRAI wants early decision on auctioning 700 MHz band

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday said the Government should take a decision on auctioning 700 MHz at the earliest to enable broadband roll out. The 700 MHz band is used for 4G mobile services.

Giving its recommendations on delivering broadband quickly the TRAI said that the use of 700 MHz band ‘has to be decided within three months so that auction of the spectrum can be planned accordingly’.

In 2012, TRAI had recommended that the auction of spectrum in 700 MHz band be carried out at a later date, preferably in 2014, as and when the ecosystem for LTE in the 700 MHz is reasonably developed. However, the Department of Telecom has not come out with any plans to do so yet.

The 700 MHz is a 4G band on which high speed broadband can be offered, and therefore, TRAI wants a quick decision on the auction.

The TRAI has also proposed other measures including unbundling of BSNL infrastructure for use by private players and adopting the Delhi Metro model for rolling out the National Optical Fibre Network.

“India is 114th in terms of ‘ICT access, ICT use and ICT skills’. We are in the least connected countries group of 42 countries that fall within the low ICT development index (IDI) group.

“India is way behind many countries and even smaller countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Bhutan and Kenya,” said Rahul Khullar, Chairman, TRAI.

“Current, availability of spectrum in our licence areas is about 40 per cent of that available in comparable countries elsewhere. Clearly, there is a crying need for assignment of additional spectrum for commercial telecom services,” Khullar said.

“BSNL has a presence in approximately 96 per cent of the districts and 87 per cent of the blocks. If BB could be effectively extended in areas where optical fibre cable is at present existing, the subscription figures would be much higher,” TRAI said.

The Authority, in its recommendations, said Bharat Broadband Network (BBNL), which takes care of the NOFN (national optical fibre network project), needs to be professionally managed.

“The Government brings legitimacy and facilitates economies of scale. Private players, on the other hand, bring efficiencies resulting from devising practical and commercially viable approaches. They complement the Government’s investment often with comparable resources of their own,” it added.

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