The department of telecommunications (DoT) will ask for vacation of additional 100 MHz spectrum from various ministries, including defence, which may generate Rs 80,000-crore revenues for the government if the price of 3G auction last year is taken as a base.
DoT will put up this demand before the empowered group of ministers (EGoM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, which is expected to meet in the next one month, a senior DoT official said on the condition of anonymity.
The recently concluded auction of 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum had earned the government revenues of about Rs 3,350 crore per Mhz for 3G and Rs 642.3 crore per Mhz for BWA on pan-India basis.
However, the vacation of about 150 MHz of spectrum in the 1,700-2,000 Mhz band for commercial use may not be sufficient to meet the requirements of 2G and 3G services. An additional spectrum of 80-100 MHz is also required, without which the growth of 2G and 3G services will be hampered. It was decided that of 300 MHz in the 1,700-2,000 MHz band, 150 MHz will be used by telecom operators for mobile services, 150 MHz for defence network.
However, DoT has now said that more spectrum will be required in this band for mobile services.
The department had decided to refer the matter of vacation of spectrum earlier this year to the eGoM after differences cropped up between DoT and various other departments, including information and broadcasting, defence and space.
According to telecom regulator TRAI, the total requirement of spectrum in the next five years would be around 500-800 MHz, including 275 MHz for voice services alone.
On the other hand, the availability of spectrum is only to the tune of about 287 to 450 MHz.
Some disagreements of DoT with defence ministry relates to setting up of an optical fibre network (OFC) in lieu of vacation of spectrum by defence services.
Defence ministry has said that there have been delays by DoT in laying the OFC network and in notifying the defence band and the defence interest zone.
