Ministry to review spectrum allocation policy

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Ministry of Communications is likely to review the policy on allocation of spectrum to operators.

Speaking on the sidelines of the WiMax India 2007 conference, Shakeel Ahmad, Minister of State for Communication and IT, said that the government is considering on the criteria on allocation of spectrum.

“We are working on reviewing the policy on allocation of spectrum. According to the current guidelines the spectrum is being allocated to the operators based on the subscriber numbers, but we are reviewing it now. But we are planning to review the criteria based on number of calls made from the operator’s network,” Ahmad said. He said that the government is seriously considering review of the policy.

He stated that there have been reports that the operators had been allocated spectrum based on the increasing subscriber numbers, which has not been validated.

“There have been instances where operators have produced inflated number of subscribers to receive additional spectrum. With the demand for spectrum increasing, we are planning to review the policy,” Ahmad added.

He informed that the ‘Do Not Call Registry’ would come in to effect from September 5.

K. Sridhara, member, Technology, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), said that the policy on the WiMax technology would be announced along with the 3G policy. He said that the 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz frequency bands would be selected for the WiMax launch in India.