The government plans to proceed with the proposal of re-farming spectrum, say news reports.
As part of the re-farming policy, the government will retain the GSM spectrum held by operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular and put it up for sale in the upcoming 2G spectrum auction. The government will re-farm spectrum in the existing 900 MHz band and re-allocate it in the 18,00 MHz band.
Earlier, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had recommended re-farming of spectrum to the Department of Telecommunications before the expiry of the licences held by the GSM operators, which will begin from mid-2014.
The GSM operators have opposed the government?s move to re-farm the GSM spectrum held by them. The operators claim that setting-up infrastructure for providing telecom services in the 1,800 MHz band will make their investments in the existing 900 MHz band redundant. Re-allocation of spectrum will lead to increase in investments for the operators and rise in tariffs for the operators.
