Spectrum sharing guidelines unlikely soon

DoT Committee will submit its views after six weeks or during third week of October

The government is unlikely to finalise the guidelines for sharing of spectrum between telecom operators anytime soon.

The Standing Committee of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which is examining the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) submitted last month, has asked for six weeks time to give its views or suggestions on the regulator's recommendations.

According to a communication earlier this month, the DoT Committee will submit its views after six weeks or during the third week of October.

The views of the DoT Committee will then be examined by the Telecom Commission.

The Telecom Commission, which is the highest decision making authority within the DoT, will then take a call on whether to make a back reference to Trai. If it decides to seek further clarifications from Trai on the issue, that will take another few weeks.

Once the regulator clarifies, the matter will again go back to tha DoT Committee and then to the Telecom Commission. Moreover, after Telecom Commission takes a final call, its decisions will then be placed before the Cabinet for final approval.

Besides, the communication noted that the same DoT Committee is also examining Trai's recommendations on trading of spectrum. Guidelines on both sharing and trading of spectrum are likely to be notified at the same time.

In July, Trai has recommended that two companies could share spectrum if they held it in a common band in a common service area and if the spectrum were bought in auction or at market price. However, the similar sharing is allowed across all spectrum bands, Trai had said.

However, the industry has expressed unhappiness with the regulator's recommendations. The Government has, earlier this year, announced guidelines for merger and acquisitions (M&A) for the telecom industry. But the industry has been waiting for the key guidelines on sharing and trading of spectrum.

Trai has also suggested the spectrum use charge for those sharing be increased by 0.50% for both operators. It added that if Company X got into a sharing agreement with Company Y, half the spectrum held by Company Y should be considered as additional spectrum held by Company X in a specific band, and vice-versa.

Regulations permit cellphone service providers a maximum of 50% of the radio frequencies assigned in a circle and 25% in a frequency band.