Telecom spectrum sharing recommendations from TRAI

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday announced its final recommendations on spectrum sharing for mobile operator in India.

If approved by the Cabinet, the main benefit will be to telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, etc.

TRAI said all access spectrum in the bands of 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 /   2300 / 2500 MHz will be sharable provided that both the licensees are having spectrum in the same band.

Telecom Tower

“Considering the fact that  spectrum  sharing results  in additional quantity of spectrum with both the  licensees to serve higher number of consumers, the SUC  rate of each of the licensees post-sharing shall increase by  0.5 percent of AGR,” said TRAI.

TRAI noted that there are many licensees having administratively assigned spectrum in the 800 MHz,   900 MHz  and  1800 MHz  band.

“If any one of the two licensees, sharing  their  spectrum,  has administratively assigned  spectrum in  that   band,   then after  sharing,  they will   be permitted  to    provide   only   those    services  which   can  be   provided through administratively held spectrum,” said TRAI.

If both the licensees are sharing that spectrum which has either been assigned  through  an auction in  the   year2010 or  afterwards, or  on which  the licensee  has  already  paid  the  prescribed  market  value  (as decided by  the Government from time to  time)  to  the  Government, they can  offer services  using  all  those  technologies (GSM,   CDMA, WCDMA, LTE, etc), which   they   can   independently   provide  through  their own spectrum holding.

A portion of additional capacitycreated needs to  be  counted for  the purpose of  applying the   prescribed spectrum caps of  25 percent   of  total spectrum   assigned  and  50 percent  in   a  band.   For   the limited  purpose of  applying the  prescribed market caps, 50 percent of the  spectrum held  by the  other  license  in  the band   being shared shall  be   counted  as  the additional spectrum being  held  by  the licensee.