Guidelines for Spectrum Sharing May Not be Issued Soon

The wait for the finalised guidelines on the issue of spectrum sharing would be prolonged, as the guidelines are not likely to be issued in the near future. Reports by various national media suggest that the Government is unlikely to finalise the guidelines soon.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (“TRAI”) had submitted its recommendations on the guidelines for spectrum sharing last month. Our previous post on the recommendations made by the TRAI can be accessed here.

The Standing Committee of the Department of Telecommunications (“DoT”), which is examining the recommendations made by the TRAI, has sought for 6 (six) more weeks time to give views on the TRAI recommendations. It is expected to submit the same around the second half of the month of October.

The Government has been working towards finalisation of the guidelines for spectrum sharing and has accorded priority to the same. With a new Government recently being voted into the Centre, the DoT provided for the issuance of the sharing of spectrum between operators across different bands as part of its 100-day agenda. Please refer our post Department of Telecom’s 100-Day Agenda on the same. Further, the implementation of the guidelines on spectrum sharing was also mentioned in the list of pending policy issues drawn up by the DoT. Our previous post on the DoT’s list of pending policy issues is here.

Once views of the Standing Committee are submitted, the Telecom Commission, which is the highest decision making body of the DoT, would decide if certain clarifications are required from TRAI. If so required, once the TRAI has provided the clarifications, the issue would come back to the Standing Committee again, which would then give its views to the Telecom Consideration.

Media reports suggest that the industry has expressed unhappiness with the TRAI recommendations on the matter.