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74 p.c. FDI limit for mobile TV services suggested

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday recommended open bidding process for granting licences for mobile television service in the country. Allocation of spectrum to mobile TV licensees should be automatic for successful bidders and should not require any further selection process. The FDI limit for mobile television service providers should be 74 per cent, it said.

Releasing its recommendations on issues relating of mobile TV service here, TRAI said there were two routes for providing the services — one by using the telecom network with spectrum already allotted, and the other using the broadcasting method — and both can be used for launching the service.

Telecom operators, having the Unified Access Services License (UASL) or the Cellular Mobile Telephony Service (CMTS) License, will not require any further licence or permission for offering mobile TV services on their own network using spectrum already allotted to them. However, a new class of operators for using the broadcast method needs to be created, it said.

Stating that the chosen technology should be digital, TRAI has recommended that the choice of technology should be left to the service provider with the condition that the technology to be deployed for providing mobile television should be based on standards issued by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Telecom Engineering Centre of India (TEC) or any other international standards organisation/body or any other standardisation organisation/body specified by the Centre.

“The licensee should ensure that the technology used is such that its subscribers are generally able to migrate to any other licensee using the same standards without changing the handsets if the handset has been provided by the licensee,” it said.

Allocation of carriers in the UHF Band V (from 585 MHz – 806 MHz) for terrestrial mode of mobile television transmission, and S-Band for satellite mode of mobile television transmission has been recommended. Apart from Doordarshan, private operators may be assigned at least one slot of 8 MHz each for mobile TV operation using terrestrial systems. For satellite based systems also, apart from Doordarshan, private operators may be allocated spectrum such that a bandwidth of at least 8 MHz is available to them for mobile television services. Sharing of terrestrial transmission infrastructure of Doordarshan should be permitted on mutual agreement basis, it added.

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