Birla meets Sibal to discuss spectrum availability

Continuing his interaction with the industry, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today met Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla and sought his views before finalising policy on spectrum allocation.

Sibal is also likely to meet Vodafone CEO on the same issue.

Birla, promoter of Idea Cellular, is understood to have expressed concern over shortage of spectrum and asked the Minister to look into their demand at the earliest.

Earlier this week, the Minister had met Sunil Mittal of Bharti, Anil Ambani of RCoM  and Ratan Tata of TTSL and discussed the current scenario in the sector.

Earlier in the day, the minister had said that the real problem here is that, "we have the lowest volume of spectrum available to the public and for the civil use. So we need to increase the amount of spectrum and we are trying to do that."

Yesterday, Sibal had said the growth in the sector is essentially centered on adequate spectrum availability, assuring government will make all efforts to provide requisite airwaves to meet the industry's demand.

This is because it (spectrum) is a vehicle through which people of India will be empowered and therefore we need a very broad area within the spectrum available that can be put to civilian use.