The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has requested the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to make additional spectrum available across all commercially frequency bands. The move is aimed at ensuring sufficiency of supply of spectrum for a successful auction. Along with this, CII has requested the DoT to suggest reserve price for spectrum in the 2100 MHz band.
CII is of the view that additional spectrum available across 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz spectrum bands need to be made available to the telecom operators. If the auctions are held with inadequate spectrum, it could lead to distorted results and raise serious concerns over the issue of fair competition and continuity of business for those operators whose licences are due for expiry.
CII had earlier made several representations for the need to swap three blocks of 5 MHz in the 2100 band with the defence forces. It had sought that this spectrum, along with one existing block of 5 MHz, be made available for the forthcoming spectrum auctions.
