New Delhi: In a move that’s expected to significantly improve the quality of services offered by telecom service providers, the cabinet on Wednesday approved the much-awaited spectrum sharing policy finalized by the Telecom Commission on 12 June.
“Spectrum sharing allows operators to pool their respective spectrum for usage in a specific geographical area, thus complementing each other’s needs and ensuring more efficient utilisation of the spectrum,” a government statement said. “Moreover, the pooling of the spectrum increases spectrum efficiency for both operators, as capacity to carry telecom traffic is not in linear proportion to the sum of their spectrum holding, but is much larger than the sum of the traffic capacities of individual service provider,” the statement added.
The previous United Progressive Alliance government had given its in-principle approval to the policy in November 2012.
As per the rules approved by the Telecom Commission, and approved by the cabinet, spectrum can only be shared if both telcos have the necessary spectrum in the same band.
Both telcos would have to pay an additional spectrum usage charge of 0.5% of the adjusted gross revenue to share airwaves.
Leasing of spectrum has not been allowed. Telcos have to pay the differential between the price of the airwaves, if acquired at different times, on a pro-rata basis for the balance period of the validity of the spectrum. The entities have to inform the government of a deal 45 days before they start to share spectrum.
The cabinet decided to take up spectrum trading norms separately.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also approved the strengthening of the drug regulatory system at the centre and state levels at a cost of ₹ 1,750 crore. The money will be spent on additional equipment and hiring more personnel for existing drug-testing laboratories and setting up new laboratories.
In a step to promote cooperation between India and Nepal, the cabinet approved the signing of an MoU for the construction of a petroleum products pipeline from Raxaul in India to Amlekhgunj in Nepal and the re-engineering of the Amlekhgunj depot and allied facilities.
In a separate development ahead of the Bihar polls, the CCEA signed off on a slew of farmer-friendly measures to mitigate the damage caused by deficient rainfall across the country.
The CCEA also relaxed the norms for a soft loan of ₹ 6,000 crore for sugar mills to repay sugarcane growers in the current fiscal. The scheme was approved in June but the central government has now extended the date of achieving eligibility under the soft loan scheme from 30 June to 31 August in order to increase the coverage of the soft loan scheme.
Nikita Mehta and Sayantan Bera contributed to this story.
