The union cabinet Wednesday ended an eight-year-long dispute of spectrum
sharing between the defence and telecom sectors by earmarking bands for
exclusive use of the former while also specifying use of remaining
airwaves for civilian purposes in areas such as civil aviation and
space.
The Cabinet Committe on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also
approved four-laning of two key national highway sections in Jammu and
Kashmir.
Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told
the media after a cabinet meeting that nine slots will be for exclusive
use of defence in between 3 MHz and 40 gigahertz.
"Today, I met
(Defence Minister) Manohar Parrikar with our officials and discussed the
matter. This matter (spectrum swapping) was pending for eight years.
Defence released 5 MHz of 2,100 bands for telecom usage," Prasad said.
"This shows the manner in which our government takes effective decisions," he added.
Prasad said spectrum was mainly used by defence, communications, space, civil aviation and information and broadcasting.
"We had to take a balanced view of all these things," he said.
The
telecom ministry had earlier proposed to exchange 15 Mhz spectrum it
holds in the 1,900 Mhz band with same quantum of airwaves held by the
defence ministry in the 2,100 Mhz. The 2,100 Mhz band is used for 3G
telecommunications services.
"Swapping of 15 MHz in the frequency band of 1,900 MHz with the telecommunications has been permitted," the minister said.
Regarding
"harmonisation" of defence band between telecom and defence, Prasad
said: "The band in the 1,700-2,000 MHz is required to be harmonised. The
cabinet has approved that this harmony must be done within a period of
one year."
Prasad said there were certain issues where more clarity was needed.
He said the area within 50 km of India's borders will be demarcated as defence interest zone.
"In
peace time, the telecom operation that we will do, we will intimate
defence. In operation times, those will come under their jurisdiction,"
he said.
Prasad, however, said there were certain issues in nine slots where some more work was needed.
"Therefore,
31 slots are those where defence use has to coexist with other usage.
Like space, broadcasting, civil aviation and others."
However, no decision on the reserve price of the 3G spectrum was taken.
India's
telecom regulator Jan 15 said the reserve price of third generation
(3G) spectrum was what it had recommended but noted that sufficient
spectrum should be available in the 2,100 megahertz (MHz) band otherwise
the auction's purpose will be defeated.
The TRAI Dec 31 had
recommended a base price of Rs.2,720 crore per megahertz for the 2,100
Mhz band as against pan-India reserve price of Rs.3,500 crore per MHz in
the 2010 auction of 3G spectrum.
The next round of spectrum auction in 800, 900, 1,800 and 2,100 megahertz (MHz) will start Feb 25.
The
CCEA also approved the four-laning of the Ramban-Banihal and
Udhampur-Ramban sections of the national highways in Jammu and Kashmir.
Work on the projects would be done under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-II.
The
estimated cost of the Ramban-Banihal section will be Rs.1,623.98 crore
which includes cost of land acquisition, resettlement, rehabilitation
and other pre-construction activities. The total length of the road will
about 32 km.
For the Udhampur-Ramban section, the cost is estimated to be Rs.1758.68 crore and the length is 40.07 km.
The projects will provide all-weather-connectivity from Jammu to the Kashmir Valley.
