The Cabinet in January had approved setting up a 'Defense Band', earmarking spectrum for exclusive use by security forces, while making available the remaining radio waves for commercial use in areas like telecom and broadcasting.
It had also approved swapping of 15 megahertz of 3G spectrum between the Defense and Telecom ministries. The spectrum bands, though, need to be harmonized before it can be made available for commercial use.
"Defence Band has been declared this year only and now harmonization is going on, which is in the final stages...by December, we will be in a position to decide who will go where and what will be the time-frame," a top Department of Telecom (DoT) official told PTI.
"As a result of this, lots of additional spectrum will be released on one side and the spectrum efficiency will also increase," the official added.
The Defense band will provide exclusive right to spectrum for armed forces and help free up radio waves for commercial 3G mobile services.
Telecom Ministry had proposed to exchange 15 Mhz spectrum it holds in 1900 Mhz band with same quantum of airwaves held by Defense in 2100 Mhz. The 2100 Mhz band is currently used for 3G services.
The government may auction the 3G spectrum made available by swapping in the auction planned next year. The DoT has already written to sectoral regulator TRAI for seeking reserve price of various bands including 700, 800, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2300 MHz that can be used for 2G, 3G and 4G services.
The government expects a revenue Rs 42,865.62 crore from communication services in 2015-16, which include proceeds from spectrum auction and other charges levied by the DoT.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman R S Sharma had told PTI that recommendations for base price of all these bands will be out soon, though he did not divulge the exact time-frame.
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