The Cellular Operators Association of India is planning to request the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to put up for sale additional spectrum in 1800 MHz band in the upcoming auctions.
The industry association will urge DoT to auction the entire unused spectrum in the 1800 MHz band, which is currently held by government agencies, including the armed forces. It is of the view that operators that are unable to acquire spectrum in the 900 MHz band in the upcoming auctions will not be able to buy spectrum in the 1800 MHz band to continue providing services, as licenses for only 26 MHz of spectrum in the latter band will expire and will be auctioned.
A total of 104 MHz of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band is expected to be sold for the upcoming auction. This includes the 78 MHz of spectrum that remained unsold in the February 2014 auction. Further, 184 units of 900 MHz band will be available in the auction.
Meanwhile, COAI is also likely to ask DoT to reshuffle existing spectrum in the 1800 MHz band to ensure more availability of contiguous spectrum, which will enable operators to offer 4G services. Currently, only eight contiguous blocks of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band are available in four out of 22 circles.
