The government appears to have softened its stand on the spectrum allocation issue, with the department of telecommunications (DoT) late on Tuesday deciding to constitute a committee with industry participation to review the Telecom Engineering Centre?s (TEC?s) recommendations.
TEC, the technical wing of the DoT, recommended increasing subscriber base norms almost eight times for GSM operators to be eligible for more spectrum, which the government had accepted in principle on October 31. GSM operators opposed the report.
The new committee will also have outside experts. ?Cellular Operators? Association of India and Association of Unified Service Providers of India will also be associated with the committee,? a DoT statement said.
The committee will submit its report within three weeks for the finalisation of spectrum allocation criteria for licensed operators. Further allocation of spectrum to any category will be determined on the basis of recommendations of the committee and directions of TDSAT, if any, the statement said.