The government has allowed sharing of airwaves between telecom companies, a much-awaited move that would help in more efficient use of the scarce natural resource while improving quality of calls and data speeds, and possibly lower tariffs as industry capex could fall.
However, another crucial step -trading of airwaves, which could lead to much-needed consolidation in the competitive industry -wasn't taken up for consideration after the operators brought up what was amounting to double taxation in the proposed trading rules, sources said, without specifying. Late Wednesday, the government said spectrum sharing would be allowed only between two carriers in one service area, where both the licensees have airwaves in the same band -2G, 3G or 4G.
Leasing of spectrum, though, will not be allowed. The permission for sharing will be given for five years and can be extended by another five.
The government ratified the department's proposal that sharing of non-auctioned spectrum should not be permitted with auctioned airwaves, unless market price for the former is paid. For 800 MHz band acquired in the auction held in March 2013, sharing will be allowed only if the differential of the latest auction price and the March 2013 auction price on pro-rata basis on the balance period of the permit is paid, the government said.
For the purpose of charging SUC, licensees shall be considered as sharing their entire spectrum holding in the particular band in the entire circle.However, for spectrum holding caps in a circle, the government accepted the telecom regulator's more liberal proposal of counting only half the capacity of one company to be added to the other's airwaves.
This means if telco A with 10 MHz shares spectrum with telco B holding 8 MHz, the bandwidth counted for calculating spectrum usage charges will be 14 MHz for A and 13 MHz for B, a step which will help operators, especially top operators such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, meet overall bandwidth cap rules while sharing spectrum among themselves.
Operators cannot hold more than 25% of the airwaves allotted in one service area and more than 50% of the allotted airwaves in a particular band.
Operators who wish to share airwaves will jointly have to give prior intimation for sharing the right to use the spectrum at least 45 days before the proposed effective date of sharing. The sharing operators need to pay a processing fee of Rs.50,000 individually for each service area at the time of intimation, the government said.
However, another crucial step -trading of airwaves, which could lead to much-needed consolidation in the competitive industry -wasn't taken up for consideration after the operators brought up what was amounting to double taxation in the proposed trading rules, sources said, without specifying. Late Wednesday, the government said spectrum sharing would be allowed only between two carriers in one service area, where both the licensees have airwaves in the same band -2G, 3G or 4G.
Leasing of spectrum, though, will not be allowed. The permission for sharing will be given for five years and can be extended by another five.
The government ratified the department's proposal that sharing of non-auctioned spectrum should not be permitted with auctioned airwaves, unless market price for the former is paid. For 800 MHz band acquired in the auction held in March 2013, sharing will be allowed only if the differential of the latest auction price and the March 2013 auction price on pro-rata basis on the balance period of the permit is paid, the government said.
For the purpose of charging SUC, licensees shall be considered as sharing their entire spectrum holding in the particular band in the entire circle.However, for spectrum holding caps in a circle, the government accepted the telecom regulator's more liberal proposal of counting only half the capacity of one company to be added to the other's airwaves.
This means if telco A with 10 MHz shares spectrum with telco B holding 8 MHz, the bandwidth counted for calculating spectrum usage charges will be 14 MHz for A and 13 MHz for B, a step which will help operators, especially top operators such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, meet overall bandwidth cap rules while sharing spectrum among themselves.
Operators cannot hold more than 25% of the airwaves allotted in one service area and more than 50% of the allotted airwaves in a particular band.
Operators who wish to share airwaves will jointly have to give prior intimation for sharing the right to use the spectrum at least 45 days before the proposed effective date of sharing. The sharing operators need to pay a processing fee of Rs.50,000 individually for each service area at the time of intimation, the government said.
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