Spectrum sharing, trading guidelines by year-end, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Saturday the guidelines for telecom spectrum trading and sharing will be in place by the end of the year.

"Guidelines will be in place by end of year on spectrum trading and sharing," Prasad said at the press conference marking the first 100 days in the ministry.

In July, telecom regulator Trai had recommended allowing sharing of all categories of radiowaves held by operators including those allocated at the old price of Rs 1,658 crore or assigned without auction, a move that could help companies significantly reduce cost of providing mobile services.

Trai had suggested that all access spectrum in the bands of 800/900/1800/2100/2300/2500 MHz will be sharable provided that both licensees are have spectrum in the same band.

At present, telecom operators have been allocated radiowave frequencies in 800 MHz (CDMA); 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz (GSM 2G/3G); 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz (4G) for wireless telecom services.

Operators are allowed to share passive infrastructure like mobile towers, which has helped them in reducing operational cost but not active infrastructure like spectrum.

The government also announced people in flood-hit Kashmir will get free telecom services for a week on BSNL network, and mobile networks have been substantially or partially restored in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), except Poonch.

Of the total 12,306 base transceiver stations (BTS) or mobile towers in J&K, 6,811 were submerged, Prasad said, adding that of these the government has restored 1,208.

"People can talk free for a week on BSNL's network in the flood affected areas. We have also requested private telecom operators. They have allowed 60 minutes of free talk time everyday," Prasad said.

He said 8,000 landline connections in the Kashmir valley have started working and the government has opened 5 free public calling booths (PCOs) at the airport.

On the status of the telecom networks in the valley, Prasad said, "Except Poonch, mobile services are either substantially or partially restored in all parts of the valley."

BSNL had on Friday said telecom services in the flood-hit Kashmir Valley are being normalised slowly with restoring of around 80 per cent of the affected network.

The state-owned firm said it had restored 92 mobile towers, which were affected by floods. Overall 473 towers are working in the Valley whereas 934 is the number for the whole state.

Other private players including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Reliance Communications (RCom) have also restored their network in various parts of the state.