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RADIO FREQUENCY REPORT SUBMITTED
The Spectrum committee under the group on
telecom submitted its report on frequency allocation for telecom,
broadcast, and defence communications purposes amidst utmost
secrecy to the Prime Minister's office last week. The recommendations
are to be used to come up with a revised national frequency
allocation policy (NFAP). The committee consulted the defence,
aviation, information and broadcasting ministries before making
its recommendations. The existing NFAP had awarded frequencies
up liberally to Indian government services. Most of them operate
their communications links in the 800-900 MHz and 1,800-2,000
MHz range.
One newspaper reported that the committee
has recommended that more frequency bands be opened to telecom
operators. Government bodies and agencies, which are not optimally
utilising their allocated frequency spectrum, should be asked
to give up their unutlised bandwidth, the committee is reported
to have said in its recommendations. It has also said technology
options should be examined to allow for sharing of the available
frequency spectrum. A proposal has been made to set up a Spectrum
Fund, the corpus of which will be created from frequency charges
paid by various users to the government.
Many private players have evinced interest
in launching basic and cellular telecom services and this
has put pressure on the availability of the frequency spectrum.
The government is hence trying to find solutions, keeping
in mind national security communications' needs and those
of private telecom operators.
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