DoT may offer alternative on cordless telecom system to defence authorities

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is likely to offer an alternative proposal to defence authorities on the cordless telecommunications system (CTS).

According to a recent discussion of the DoT committee set up to examine the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Allocation of Spectrum Resources for Residential and Enterprise Intra-telecommunication Requirements/Cordless telecommunications Systems (CTS), the department is planning to "formally" take up the issue with defence authorities, offering possible alternatives.

After defence authorities expressed concern on the Trai recommendations proposing de-licencing of the 20-MHz spectrum in the 1880-1900 MHz band for cordless communication services, the DoT committee has proposed that CTS be strictly confined to indoor usage with no inter-building operations being permitted.

The Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) could develop national standards to ensure that usage gets restricted to indoor applications within 10 MHz as a possible alternative. TEC might also set the standards after field trials with defence experts monitoring the same, according to the discussion.

Once the standards are set by TEC, the government would support domestic manufacturers to develop cordless systems.

It further stated that spectrum usages are dependent on geographical coverage and time. The committee also recommended that the department may consider allocating spectrum to more than one set of users if it is ensured that such allocation would not compromise on security and interference issues. But, this should be away from defence unit establishments.

Earlier, the DoT committee rejected Trai's proposal to de-license 20 MHz of spectrum in the 1,880-1,900 MHz band for CTS, as defence authorities expressed serious concerns that these threaten to undermine the interests of the armed forces.

The committee has suggested that a maximum of 10 MHz can be taken up for de-licensing after addressing concerns of the defence authorities. Currently, 300 units in the1,700-2,000 MHz band are equally divided between DoT and the armed forces.

In October, Trai had recommended that spectrum in the 1,880-1,900 MHz band should be de-licensed for non-commercial operation of low-power cordless systems. It had also advocated an inter-building operation of cordless systems within the same premise for private use.