Clearance of commercially valuable spectrum bands expedited

TELEPHONY: The President has taken far-reaching measures for the clearance of very valuable spectrum bands to be used mainly by mobile and fixed line operators.

This has been done on a Cabinet decision taken recently with regard to the policy to be adopted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission in vacating those bands by the incumbent occupants.

Specific measures have been recommended by the Cabinet of Ministers on a recommendation of the President in his capacity as the Minister in charge of the subject of TRC, for the optimum use of these valuable spectrum bands.

This is of particular significance in the light of TRC offering spectrum for 3 G rollout last week

The International Telecommunications Union has identified the radio frequency bands, 450MHz, 1800MHz and 2GHz as the most economical, efficient and technically suitable frequency bands for the expansion of cellular mobile services and for the deployment of 3rd generation services.

This fact has given an exceptional value for these bands all over the world and the operators are eager to acquire spectrum on these bands at a substantial cost.

The radio frequency bands 450MHz, 1800MHz and 2GHz have been allocated for various types of telecommunication applications since 1980's and early 1990's depending on the requirement at that time. With the maturity of mobile technology during recent years, pressing demand for these bands have arisen for the expansion/introduction of mobile services.

The TRCSL has allocated the 1800MHz band for non-mobile telephony related transmissions called fixed services in early 1990's.

Several Government and non-Government operators are using this band for point-to-point transmissions for fixed and broadcasting services.

With the rapid expansion of mobile services, spectrum congestion became a severe issue and the TRCSL identified the 1800MHz band as the most suitable and the only band to resolve the issue as the incumbents of the band could be accommodated in alternative bands.

TRCSL has allocated a part of the 1800MHz band for mobile expansion while taking measures to relocate the incumbents in different frequency bands.

Current GSM networks operating in the 900/1800MHz bands can only cater for voice and low speed data transmissions but not broadband services.