In a major decision regarding the commercial availability of spectrum, the Department of Telecommunications (“DoT”) and the Ministry of Defence seems to have finally settled the long standing issue of vacation of additional spectrum by the Defence for civilian use. Our earlier post on the 2015 spectrum auctions, can be accessed here.
The issue has been prevailing between the said ministries of the Government, since 2009, when a basic plan of vacation of spectrum was agreed. According to the agreement between the ministries, the Defence had assured release of another slot of 5 MHz subject to milestones such as notification of the defence interest zone and defence band. Presently, the DoT is working on notifying the same.
While the Ministry of Defence has decided to release 5 MHz spectrum, as had been agreed in 2009, no decision has been made on swapping 15 MHz of airwaves in all the 22 telecom circles.
However, certain media reports indicate that the ministries have also agreed in principle on the swapping of spectrum. The Ministry of Defence has agreed to swap 15 MHz spectrum in 2100 MHz band with the like amount in the 1900 MHz band, presently with the DoT. While spectrum in the 1900 MHz band had been reserved by the DoT for expansion of CDMA services by the operators, spectrum in the 2100 MHz band is used for the provision of 3G services by the telecom operators.
The DoT has been planning for a 2 stage auction process, with 2G being auctioned in February 2015 and the 3G and 4G in May 2015. This stand was not in consonance with the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (“TRAI”), suggesting a combined auction. It remains to be seen if the DoT would be offering the entire 20 MHz of 3G spectrum by way of a separate auction in May 2015 or would be offering the 5MHz with the 2G spectrum in February 2015.
The Local Loop 