The group of ministers on telecommunications on Sunday agreed to free 25 MHz of additional spectrum to mobile service providers over the next three years.

The ministry of finance is expected to shell out nearly Rs 900 crore (Rs 9 billion) for the upgradation of communication systems in the armed forces, which will enable them to use radio frequency more efficiently.

Fresh momentum

While internationally, mobile service providers get about 17 MHz on average, in India operators get an average of 6.2 MHz of radio frequency The defence forces, which control a large chunk of spectrum, were not ready to free it for commercial use If the additional frequency is distributed among the four cellular operators per circle, the spectrum available per operator will be 15 Mhz

Currently, the defence ministry has provided 35 MHz spectrum for telecom services. The additional 25 MHz will be released in phases.

This will take the spectrum available per operator to 15 Mhz, if the additional frequency is distributed among the four cellular operators per circle.

The ministerial group, set up by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to resolve disputes plaguing the sector, was attended by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Defence Minister George Fernandes and Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Communications Minister Arun Shourie, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and Law Minister Arun Jaitley could not attend the meeting.

The group, which was scheduled to meet on October 4, met on Sunday to discuss issues related to spectrum since Fernandes was not present in the group's first meeting on September 25, when it was agreed that more spectrum would be made available.

After the meeting, Prasad said, "We have discussed the modalities on how to make additional spectrum available to telecom service providers. The finance minister also briefed Fernandes about the proceedings in the last meeting of the group of ministers and the decisions taken."

There was no discussion on the other issues related to wireless in local loop limited mobility.

Prasad said the defence ministry and the department of telecommunications would also work out ways to use the spectrum efficiently and judiciously. Lack of spectrum has been a major source of concern for cellular operators.

While internationally, operators get about 17 MHz on average, in India operators get an average of 6.2 MHz of radio frequency.

The problem was that the defence forces controlled a large chunk of the spectrum and were not ready to free it for commercial use.

The communications ministry had sent a number of requests earlier to the defence ministry to free spectrum, before taking the matter to the ministerial group.

After the first meeting on September 25, Shourie had said the government had identified cities where mobile phone traffic was heavy.