Spectrum rules to be in place by year-end

The government today said it would announce the spectrum policy by the end of this year. It would also consult telecom operators on the possibility of introducing a facility to enable customers retain their numbers even after changing the service provider.

“I am very optimistic that the spectrum policy will be ready in a couple of months. It will definitely be before the end of the year,’ said communications minister A. Raja.

The policy has four times missed the deadline given by the ministry because of unavailability of spectrum from armed forces. But the defence ministry is expected to release some spectrum in the next couple of months.

Raja said the department of telecommunications (DoT) was aware of the 2G spectrum crunch but the ministry needed at least 35MHz of radio waves from defence forces.

On number portability, he said, “The recommendations given by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) are being considered.

“It is practiced in many countries and is useful for customers,” he added.

Raja said the telecom ministry was in talks with the defence ministry for more spectrum and the exercise was still on. “Some internal technical assessment is being done by both the ministries to see what are the spectrum bands that have not been used for a long time,” the minister said.

“Once the assessment is over, we will come out with a paper and place it before the group of ministers (GoM) .... It will help the GoM look at the release of spectrum in a broad way. Unless there is a quantum of spectrum available on hand, it is very difficult to say anything,” he added.

He also said the DoT had not decided whether to price 2G spectrum. The DoT has sought 42.5MHz of spectrum from defence forces. An alternative optical fibre network will be provided to the Army and the Navy before they vacate any spectrum.

Tariff hike

On the recent tariff hike by mobile operators, Raja said it would refer the issue to Trai and take a decision only after the regulator’s opinion.

“SMS is a mode of tariff. Tariff is in the control of the ministry. Let Trai decide on it first,” he said.

Trai chairman Nripendra Misra said, “There has been no reference from the DoT to look into the matter so far. I will have to get a communication from them first to be able to say anything on the matter.”

Earlier, the regulator had cited market forces as the cause for the hike in SMS and local call charges by Airtel and Hutch Essar. The GSM operators had hiked local SMS, local and STD call charges by 20 per cent. Most of the private gsm players also hiked std tariffs by over 10 per cent for prepaid users.

Earlier, Misra had said, “Although the recent hike in tariffs is not consumer- friendly, there is no scope for intervention as long as there is forbearance.”