The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is expected to come up with the spectrum sharing and trading guidelines only after the completion of the spectrum auctions in February 2015. This is likely to cause a delay in the introduction of the spectrum guidelines until then. DoT is reportedly of the view that releasing the guidelines before the auctions might lead to damped bidding by the telecom operators and hence, would cost them a revenues loss on the sale of spectrum.
DoT is targeting revenues of Rs 93.55 billion from sale of frequency airwaves in the upcoming spectrum auction. Around 184 MHz of spectrum in the 900 MHz band and 104 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz would be auctioned. However, the telecom department is yet to finalise the revenue target for the sale of spectrum in 2100 MHz band and is awaiting TRAI?s recommendations on the reserve price for the spectrum in this band.
According to the draft on the guidelines, DoT was considering allowing the telecom companies to share 2G spectrum given they meet some requisite conditions. Such spectrum sharing arrangements would also allow telecom operators to share spectrum in the same circle, but not between operators holding spectrum in two separate circles.
