Defence Ministry to vacate spectrum by Dec 2007

New Delhi, Sept 2: The Defence Ministry will vacate spectrum or radio frequencies by the end of the year, a move that is expected to spell a bonanza for telecom operators in the four metros apart from towns in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkand, Jammu, Srinagar and Assam.

The move will also mean that fresh areas will come up for allocation to operators giving a further fillip to the booming telecom market in the country and help usher in the much awaited 3G services.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has finalised a list of 50 points in the country where there is an urgent need for spectrum, sources said.

The requirement for spectrum varies from area to area. Thirty MHz is required in urban areas and another 15 Mhz in the rural areas.

Meanwhile state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is setting up an alternate optic fibre network for the Defence Ministry will be moved to.

This much awaited development over spectrum came through after Telecom Secretary D S Mathur and his Defence counterpart Vijay Singh met last week to thrash out the vexed issue that had been plaguing the industry for more than a decade.

A group of ministers (GoM), headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee had been looking into the release of frequencies by the armed forces and is likely to meet on September 7 to thrash out a solution to the spectrum allocation problem. Currently GSM and CDMA operators are at loggerheads over the allocation procedure and pricing of 2G spectrum used currently by mobile players.

CDMA operators say that as per the unified access service licence (UASL), each GSM operator is entitled to only 6.25 MHz of 2G spectrum and CDMA operator up to 5 MHz which comes free of cost. Tata Teleservices said if GSM operators were charged for the additional 2G spectrum allocated to them (beyond their contracted amounts), the Centre would earn in excess of Rs 1,700 crore in fees.

Contrary to the above, GSM operators said any plans to auction 2G spectrum is in conflict with not only the existing policy and licensing framework but also the contractual settlement between the government and the GSM industry.

Communications Minister A Raja had cited the 1885 Indian Telegraph Act, claiming that the Department of Telecom (DoT) is the owner and licensor of spectrum in the country, and licensees like the defence forces and others will have to pay for using it. UNI