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In a bid to soften up defence forces' stand on vacating spectrum, the Department of Telecom has sought Cabinet approval to waive spectrum charges of Rs 1.2 lakh crore payable by the armed forces.
The waiver is for the spectrum used by the defence forces since June 2004 to May 2011. The DoT has also agreed to the creation of a special defence spectrum band in the frequencies demanded by the forces.
The move is being seen as an attempt by the DoT to get the defence forces to release airwaves for use by mobile services. While the defence forces currently use about 7,500 units (Mhz) of airwaves, the DoT is eyeing about 200 units from that for mobile services.
But, so far, the defence forces have refused to vacate any more airwaves unless the DoT fulfilled its part of an agreement signed in May 2009.
According to DoT sources, if the armed forces give up the 200 units, then the Government can earn much more than the waived amount by auctioning the airwaves.
“With the proliferation of new technologies and the growing demand for telecommunication services, the demand for spectrum has increased manifold.
“Considering the growing need for communication services, there is a need to make adequate spectrum available. It necessitated the need for relocation of existing spectrum and compensation,” the draft note for the consideration of the Cabinet states.
Under the 2009 agreement, the DoT was supposed to do three things in return for getting spectrum vacated by the defence. This included creating an optical fibre cable network for the armed forces, earmarking specific airwaves as Defence Interest Zone and exempting defence from paying spectrum usage charges. While the cable network is being rolled out by BSNL, the other two commitments are yet to be fulfilled.
On creating the Defence Interest Zone, the DoT and the Ministry of Defence could not agree on the exact frequency band to be earmarked in the 1,700-2,000 Mhz bands. While these bands are important from the telecom services point of view, the armed forces wanted about 150 units carved out for its use.
The issue was referred to an empowered Group of Ministers, but now, the Telecom Ministry has intervened and directed the DoT to agree to the defence as an interim arrangement. With these steps, the Telecom Ministry is hoping that the defence will now agree to release more airwaves for mobile services.
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