COAI writes to DoT for initiating dialogue with Defence Min

GSM industry body COAI has written to the Department of Telecom (DoT) for initiating dialogue with Defence Ministry to sort out spectrum-related issues for ensuring adequate availability in the next round of auctions.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has also requested to conduct the spectrum auction in 800, 900, 1,800 and 2,100 MHz bands concurrently and not sequentially.
"We request the DoT to initiate a dialogue with Defence on the partial allocation and potential vacation of 900 MHz, reshuffling of 1,800 MHz and the swapping of 1,900 MHz with 2,100 MHz uplink," COAI said in a letter to Telecom Secretary M F Farooqui.

The industry body said once this is achieved, the DoT can move swiftly on the rearrangement of the allocations in 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz bands to ensure adequate spectrum availability in the next round of auctions.
The government is likely to auction about 165 MHz of spectrum in financial year 2014-15 that is held by telecom operators whose licences are set to expire in December 2015.
In December 2015, four licences of Bharti Airtel, seven each of Idea Cellular and Reliance Telecom and six of Vodafone will complete their 20 year term and will have to be renewed.

These companies hold most of the spectrum in the premium 900 MHz band for which they have paid up to twice more than the base price fixed by the government in the February auction.

The 10-day long auction gave the government over Rs 61,162 crore, far exceeding its own target.
COAI has also requested for extension of licences, saying it is in public interest, and non-grant of the same could lead to disruptions in networks.
Regarding 800 MHz band which is used for offering CDMA services, COAI has asked for creation of one block of contiguous 5 MHz spectrum that can be used for broadband technologies by existing CDMA or GSM/3G and BWA operators.