The Indian Railways has requested for an additional 5 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for enhancing its safety and security systems, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in a consultation paper on the subject.
Based on the reserve price, the value of 5 MHz spectrum in the 700 MHz band is estimated to be Rs 19,635 crore.
In a consultation paper on ‘assignment of additional spectrum to Indian Railways for its safety and security applications’, Trai said, the railways ministry had requested DoT to reserve 15 MHz of spectrum in 700 MHz band for this purpose and to begin with, 10 MHz to be allocated, free of cost. The proposal is devoid of any commercial gain, but only for enhancing security and passenger amenities, it said.
The railways require the spectrum to meet bandwidth requirement of its applications such as anti-collision technology Kavach, video streaming, IoT services, passenger information display system, among others.
In 2021, the government had approved allotment of 5 MHz spectrum in 700 MHz frequency band to Indian Railways for public safety and security services at stations and in trains. Later, the DoT also provisionally assigned 5 MHz of paired spectrum in 700 MHz band to National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) and the roll out of the LTE network is under process.
In the consultation paper, Trai has sought comments on whether an additional spectrum should be assigned to Indian Railways or not, if a uniform spectrum charging methodology is needed for the railways, among other things.
