DoT submits report on spectrum allocation

New Delhi, Oct 31 (UNI) The Department of Telecom's (DoT) technical wing today submitted its report on TRAI's subscriber-linked spectrum allocation criteria to the Telecom Commission, which will be presented to Communication Minister A Raja later this week.

The much-awaited report has suggested higher thresholds for spectrum allocation across circles and has set stringent spectrum efficiency reforms.

It has retained TRAI's recommendations of increasing subscriber base for awarding additional radio waves.

Some of the highlights of TRAI's recommendations include increasing subscribers number 2-6 times for allocating additional spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz in case of GSM players and 2.5 Mhz for CDMA players, which was accepted by DoT.

Earlier, GSM lobby group COAI had challenged it in telecom tribunal TDSAT on the calculation of TRAI in arriving at the 2-6 times number.

The report said that there is ample scope of enhancing efficiency of spectrum utilization further by adopting increased use of the following In-Building Solutions (IBS).

This is as per TRAI recommendations on spectrum related issues of May 13, 2005 in-building traffic of the order of 60 per cent.

The report has also suggested that new techniques such as Single Antenna Interference Cancellation (SAIC) are likely to become available in 2-3 years. This futuristic measure is expected to enhance capacity substantially.

UNI