By IANS
New Delhi : Telecom operators waiting for additional frequencies to expand their networks now have some hope. Communications Minister A. Raja has held out an assurance that the spectrum dispute with the defence ministry would be resolved in two months.
The minister said the government had received about 300 applications from 30 companies for telecom licences, and the reason behind this rush was the potential offered by the telecom sector.
“We will resolve the spectrum issue with the ministry of defence by the end of this November,” Raja told reporters after a meeting here Monday with telecom service operators. At the meeting, additional frequencies was an issue of hot debate.
The communications ministry says as much as 60 MHz of spectrum is under the control of defence ministry and not being utilised at all. It has asked for 42.5 MHz for itself for use by mobile phone service operators.
The defence ministry has been maintaining that it needed the frequencies for growth plans of its own armed forces.
A ministerial panel under External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is also looking at long-term strategies, including getting additional frequencies vacated by the defence ministry, to streamline spectrum allocation.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) issued a legal notice to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) last month to demand immediate allocation of radio waves to mobile service operators.
“The extent of delay is as much as three years in some cases. Non-availability of spectrum for such long periods is affecting operators financially,” the COAI said.
“It is hampering their ability to commence network rollout and expand their networks, and also in maintaining proper and necessary quality of service,” COAI director-general T.V. Ramachandran said.
The telecom body said the allocation of spectrum, which is vital for the development of any telecom operator, should be determined by subscriber base and done through an auctioning process to ensure optimum and effective utilisation.