DoT speeds up talks on Spectrum allocation

Struggling to get Spectrum vacated from defence forces for mobile services, including 3G, the Department of Telecom recently did some stock taking on the status of its ambitions.

Struggling to get Spectrum vacated from defence forces for mobile services, including 3G, the Department of Telecom DoT recently did some stock taking on the status of its ambitions.

8220;All that can be said at this stage is that we are trying our best to have a 3G Spectrum policy soon so that operators can start the service by second half of 2007 as stated by the minister,8221; a senior DoT official said.

Last week in a meeting, the Wireless Planning Coordination WPC panel apprised the Telecom Commission, the policy making body within DoT on the status, development and challenges in getting the Spectrum vacated from the defence forces.

Earlier, the WPC had talked telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran on the same issue. The official said there were differences with defence and there are challenges as well in the entire process. Delays have also been caused due to the CVC queries on BSNL8217;s optical fibre project, pertaining to the award of contract to certain parties.

The other major hindrance is that the Group of Ministers set up for this very purpose is yet to meet even once. Last year, DoT embarked on a Rs 1,000-crore optical fibre cable project to enable the defence forces vacate Spectrum for use by commercial cellular service providers. The move will free 45 Mhz of radio frequency for cellular usage. However, the ministry of defence is understood to have informed the DoT that it would require additional time, up to 390 days, to vacate the spectrum includes 3G Spectrum. The primary reason for the ministry seeking more time was due to BSNL and MTNL8217;s failure to complete the alternative optic fibre backbone as per requirement.

The defence ministry considers the network built by BSNL and MTNL as unsecure. This will result in an additional cost of Rs 2,700 crore for building secured network as per requirements.