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Spectrum panel wants each MHz priced

NEW DELHI: The Spectrum Committee, formed to review frequency allocation norms, has favoured pricing each megahertz of the airwaves. It has also said it was up to the government to decide whether to ask mobile operators to return excess spectrum.

In a statement, the committee said: “Legal and other policy issues have to be considered by legal experts and related to policy about return or non-return of spectrum. But every megahertz has to cost somehow.”

The committee said some operators have large chunk of spectrum than what is manageable for their existing users. At present, mobile operators get start-up spectrum along with licence fee, which is Rs.1,651 crore for a pan-India licence. The committee has said the number of subscribers, suggested by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) for awarding additional airwaves, could have been much higher if it had taken all efficiency parameters into account.

It dismissed the claims of the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) representing the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) operators that the TEC report was not based on scientific methods.

“Science has been used in the TEC calculations and for that matter the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) also, but with certain practical considerations. Operators have similar formulae, these are standard and simple formulae which the TEC has used and known to everyone,” it said.

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