The government has approved the Empowered Group of Ministers? proposal to allow mobile operators to share spectrum.
Earlier, EGoM had recommended that two operators could be allowed to share spectrum in case both of them had paid the one-time spectrum fee prospectively for the additional spectrum held by them beyond 4.4 MHz of spectrum.
As per EGoM, operators could share spectrum only after having liberalised spectrum held by each one of them. This implies that in order to share spectrum, operators had to pay the auction determined price and renew 2G spectrum held by them for a period of 20 years.
Besides, allowing sharing of spectrum by the operators, the government also approved EGoM?s proposal to provide Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) a start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz for the Delhi circle.
The operator will be awarded the spectrum at no additional cost. TTSL was entitled to get 4.4 MHz of start-up spectrum when it was awarded licences in 2008. It will only have to pay an entry fee for the spectrum.
