Defence to vacate spectrum for commercial use

New Delhi, Oct 3 (UNI) Against the backdrop of DoT recieving about 300 applications from 30 companies for telecom licences on Monday, Communications and IT Minister A Raja today said that the Defence Ministry will vacate spectrum by November.

''The spectrum issue with the Ministry of Defence will be resolved by November end,'' Raja told reporters.

The Communications Ministry has been demanding release of 45 MHz of spectrum from Defence for the telecom sectoe.

The spectrum vacated will be be now put to use for the country's growing telecom sector and a move that signals the end of the spectrum war between the Defence Ministry and telecom service providers.

''Business in the telecom sector offers great potential and that's the reason for the rush of applicants,'' Mr Raja said.

A Group of Ministers headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had been formed to look into the ways and means of releasing spectrum from defence forces.

The GoM had also formed a sub-committee to look into the technical aspects for release of spectrum.

UNI