Army won't give spectrum up easily

Defence ministry seeks Rs 1,235 crore to vacate frequency.

The defence ministry has sought Rs 1,235 crore in compensation from the government to vacate extra spectrum for telecom service providers.

In a presentation to the parliamentary standing committee on information technology, the ministry said it was willing to shift to another band but the government had not provided Rs 345 crore in compensation for vacating spectrum, as promised by the department of telecommunication's spectrum management committee in 1998-99.

Subsequently, Rs 900 crore had been earmarked for the military to enable it to switch to new spectrum-efficient equipment, but the money was yet to be disbursed, the defence ministry said.

The government has also failed to act on its commitment towards providing spectral compensation to the armed forces through "refarming for the portion of the spectrum they have vacated". This involved allocation of new spectrum bands to compensate for those vacated by the armed forces.

The defence ministry said the armed forces were willing to share extra spectrum with telecom operators for a compensation.

The DoT has often said that it is unable to provide extra spectrum to telecom operators as the defence forces are unwilling to vacate the required frequency.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, too, has declined to offer the 1900 Mhz frequency and the IMT-2000 band to GSM and CDMA operators, saying this band cannot be vacated by the armed forces.

"Till date, neither refarming nor any compensation for migration has been given to defence forces. We, therefore, urge the DoT to take up the matter at an appropriate level with a sense of urgency for giving financial and spectral compensation to defence forces," the parliamentary standing committee said in its report.

The committee has also recommended the formation of a "defence band" "� on the lines of those in the US, the UK, France and Germany "� as this will help provide adequate spectrum to both service providers and the defence forces.

"A separate defence band will also offer additional benefits for better planning for procurement and development of equipment by both the Defence and the industry, and the waiting period for assignment of frequencies will reduce considerably as there is no need for continuous coordination, vacation and migration," it added.