Bharti welcomes TRAI's move on spectrum sharing

New Delhi, June 9 (UNI) Welcoming the idea of spectrum sharing mooted by the telecom regulator, Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal today said it will ultimately benefit customers in the country.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is mulling the possibility of allowing telecom companies to share spectrum in order to solve spectrum crunch issue.

''We compliment TRAI on its decision to consider a policy for allowing sharing of spectrum among telecom companies,'' he said on the sidelines of a CII conference here.

TRAI, earlier this week, said after sharing of active and backhaul infrastructure is accepted, the next step will be sharing of scarce resource-spectrum.

The regulator will also consider giving incentives to telecom companies for rural performance in the roll out obligations, TRAI Chairman Nripendra Misra said.

The new policy may come into effect in the next two years, he said adding that the Government hoped to issue another 40 MHz spectrum released from the Indian Air Force (IAF) by July.

The Communications and IT Ministry is engaged in preparing a comprehensive policy on 3G mobile technology which may enable the release of unused spectrum from the armed forces.

The third generation (3G) policy, which would allow faster data transfer is likely to be announced by the end of this month.

The government has fixed a target of achieving 250 million subscribers by this year's end and 500 million by 2010.

UNI