Cut spectrum charges to 4%: Trai

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today recommended lowering spectrum charges paid by service providers to the government to 4% from 6% - a move which may further bring down telecom tariffs.

On the allocation of the controversial 1,900MHz band, the regulator said it cannot be vacated by the defence sector, and thus recommended that both GSM and CDMA players be allocated spectrum in the IMT-2000 in the 2GHz band.

Recognising the problem in allocating spectrum, Trai recommended immediate constitution of a high-level group of ministers to deal with the issue in order to achieve the target of 200 million mobile subscribers by 2007.