Amid ongoing standoff between the government and telcos over ‘3G spectrum sharing’, the Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body of the communications ministry, has allowed the operators to share 2G airwaves. The move is unlikely to relieve the telcos such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Aircel who have dragged the government to court after the telecom department (DoT) and other government machineries dubbed their 3G roaming deals as illegal.
The 3G telecom operators had entered into agreement with each other to provide 3G services in circles where they did not own the spectrum license. The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), however, held back the DoT order to terminate the 3G roaming agreements between the telecom operators. The telecom operators, meanwhile, have declined to comment on the development, stating they are not aware about the TC decision as it wasn’t officially announced by the government yet.
Besides permission for 2G sharing, the TC has also announced a slew of riders to manage and control spectrum sharing. One of the notable announcement is the operators that own airwaves in a specific region can only share it. This means a telecom operator who has not 2G spectrum in a particular circle will not share airwaves with other operator who has radio frequencies.
“Spectrum can be shared only between two spectrum holders…. In other words, a non-licensee or licensee who has not been assigned spectrum as yet cannot be party to spectrum trading,” Times of India quotes the excerpts of the latest TC meeting. The TC has further decided to levy a one-time fee for extra spectrum beyond the contracted limit of 6.2 MHz. The move is believed to put heavy monetary burden on old GSM operators.
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