TRAI's Options on Refarming 900 MHz Spectrum

[admin]

TRAI has discussed three cases for re-farming the 900 MHz Spectrum.

Case I - Take back all 900MHz and replace this with 1,800MHz; not a workable option:
This approach will be hugely disruptive, especially for existing rural operations of various operators. TRAI acknowledges that if this approach is followed, the remaining 1,800MHz may not be sufficient to allocate spectrum to new licensees if needed for promoting competition. TRAI has not even noted that more 1,800MHz spectrum may be needed to achieve the same coverage/capacity as 900MHz due to differences in efficiency of the bands. Consequently, this is not a workable option.

Case II is for allowing incumbents to keep 5MHz in 900MHz and return excess during licence expiry.

Case III is to implement the above immediately for all circles instead of during licence expiry. TRAI’s calculation suggests enough 1,800MHz spectrum availability for implementing these options.

Also re-farming is meant for using 900MHz for 3G, especially in rural areas for broadband data. However, 5MHz of spectrum is not sufficient for simultaneous 2G and 3G. Hence for implementing 3G, 2G has to be ripped out first. However, we do not expect material 3G handset penetration in rural areas for the next 3-4 years. So implementing 3G in 900MHz is likely to create a partial blackout in rural areas.

[inception]

With 900 MHz band in their pockets, incumbent players save huge money on network expansion and coverage issues.

It would be better if every operators gets 4.4MHz spectrum on 900Mhz band, then remaining on 1800 MHz (upto 8 MHz or 10MHz). If still some of 900 MHz spectrum remains unused auction it for 3G/LTE roll out.