The issue of the assignment of spectrum to the operators for backhauling access traffic has been a point of debate since 2014. The DOT’s existing policy (dated 16th Oct 2015) is to assign this spectrum administratively and charge a % revenue share as license fees. However, DOT now intends to auction this spectrum. As it feels that doing so is necessary to align with the Supreme Court’s Judgment dated 2nd Feb 2012. Hence, to resolve this conundrum, in the past, there have been multiple backs and forths between DOT and TRAI, which culminated in a recommendation from TRAI dated 29th Aug 2014. However, DOT is yet to take a formal decision on this recommendation. This fact is mentioned by the TRAI in its paper dated 11th April 2022 (Clause 2.408, page 148). The purpose of this note is to analyze DOT’s and TRAI’s approaches to the assignment and pricing of the E-Band spectrum. Are the problems with these approaches? And if yes, what are the possible solutions?
Background
The background related to this topic has been captured in my earlier note dated 6th Dec 2015, titled — Should we Auction MW Spectrum? I encourage the readers to go through this article, as it captures all related information linked to this topic from the beginning.
