Telecom panel to consider Trai recommendations on spectrum

The highest decision-making body of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Telecom Commission, will meet tomorrow to consider the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommendations on spectrum management and other licensing issues.

The panel set up by DoT to study Trai’s recommendations has already submitted its report.

The internal panel of DoT has accepted the regulator’s views on imposing one-time fee on operators for holding spectrum beyond contractual limits, and mergers and acquisitions rules under which a combined entity after merger will have a total market share of 30 per cent and not more than 14.4/10 Mhz of spectrum.

However, after deliberations in the Telecom Commission, the main policy changes will be referred to the Cabinet for a final decision, a senior official from the department said.

Telecom Commission has members from the Finance Ministry, Planning Commission, Information Technology and industrial policy and promotion.

The proposed policy changes, including revising the structure of UASL (unified access service license) and delinking of spectrum from license and pricing of excess spectrum, will be placed before the Cabinet since these decisions were earlier taken by the Cabinet under the aegis of the National Telecom Policy 1999.

“Any change in the letter and spirit of NTP’99 on license and spectrum issue has to be subjected to the scrutiny of the Cabinet and Parliament,” the department said in a note.