The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s (TRAI) recommendations to redistribute spectrum in the 900 MHz band has met with concern from operators.
The regulator had proposed three models for this. One, it has sought the industry’s comments on its proposal that incumbents be allowed to retain part of the airwaves they hold in the 900-MHz band and the remaining be considered for redistribution.
According to the TRAI?s consultation paper, the licensees can be allowed to retain 5 MHz spectrum in 900 MHz band at the time of renewal of their licences and the rest of the spectrum in 900 MHz band is redistributed by assigning spectrum in 1,800 MHz in lieu of the redistributed spectrum. However, licensees will have to pay the price of spectrum both in the 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz band as determined in the auction when renewing their mobile permits.
TRAI believes that if the aforementioned option is exercised, sufficient spectrum would be left in most regions which can be allocated to new licensees as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
The other alternative proposed by the regulator is to provide operators with an option to surrender spectrum in excess of 5 MHz in the 900 MHz band now, in exchange for equal amount of spectrum in 1,800 MHz band irrespective of the expiry dates of their licences.
Meanwhile, operators have already begun to express their reservations on these proposals. Idea Cellular, for example, has said that it stands to lose Rs 170 billion if the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) accepts TRAI?s recommendations to shift existing telecom players providing their services in 800 and 900 Mhz bands to some other frequency band after expiry of their telecom licences.
