Spectrum not to have tech bias

The government today said it would frame a new "technology-neutral" policy for allocating frequency to telecom service providers.

"Let me assure that the government's policy on spectrum allocation will remain technology-neutral. Spectrum sharing and co-existence are the key themes for the efficient utilisation of radio frequency spectrum," Maran said at the Economic Editors' Conference.

Both GSM (Global System for Mobiles) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) players have been vying for the 1900 Mhz band. While GSM operators want the band for offering 3G mobile services, CDMA operators said the band was compatible with the equipment worldwide.

A five-member committee has been constituted by the department of telecommunications to look into the spectrum issue.

Telecom Secretary Nripendra Misra said the government had stepped up monitoring of international calls to keep a check on the grey market and to ensure that calls were not misrouted.

Maran said the government would soon decide on imposing a penalty on Reliance Infocomm for misrouting international calls as domestic calls.

The minister also announced that equipment manufacturers LG and Elcoteq would start manufacturing handsets in India shortly. LG was expected to begin manufacturing from January and intended to manufacture around 2 million handsets in 2005 and double it to 4 million in 2006 and 8 million in 2007, he added.

The minister also favoured the continuation of the access deficit charges (ADC) regime for the remaining two-and-a-half years. Maran said he had sought a budgetary support of Rs 2,500 crore from the finance ministry for rural telephony.