Telecom Commission to finalize spectrum sharing and trading guidelines
The Telecom Commission has stated that it has finalized the views regarding the issue of spectrum sharing and trading guidelines and the proposal for the same will be sent to the Cabinet by the end of this month. According to a report by PTI, Rakesh Garg, Telecom Secretary, said, “We have finalised the view on spectrum-sharing and trading guidelines. We will try to send the norms to the Cabinet by the end of this month.”
The new guidelines will be first sent to the Telecom Minister and then will be later on passed to the Cabinet for approval. TRAI has also favoured the recommendations of allowing the telcos to share the spectrum the acquired through trading. The guidelines will allow the operators to share their unutilized radio waves with other service providers in the same telecom circle.
Last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has suggested that sharing all categories of telecom radio waves incorporating the spectrum allocated at old price of Rs. 1,658 crore, or assigned without auction. TRAI also allowed the trading of spectrum.
The trading of spectrum if allowed will lead to increase in efficient use of radio waves by enabling telcos, who have a lower subscriber base or unutilised spectrum, to trade in it.
