Telcos get approval to share spectrum but with conditions

The Telecom Commission, the apex decision-making body of the communications ministry, has decided to allow mobile phone companies to share spectrum, but has limited this facility to 2G airwaves alone. Second generation (2G) spectrum is largely used for offering vanilla voice services. This means, telcos cannot share 3G spectrums. Incumbents such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel and Idea Cellular, who have taken the government to court, after the telecom department asked these companies to terminate their 3G roaming deals, had hoped that policy changes permitting the sharing of airwaves, would put an end to this controversy. These companies have signed up 3G customers across the country riding on bilateral roaming agreements that allow these firms to use each other's airwaves and offer high-end data services even in regions where they do not have third generation spectrum.

Source: Economic Times