gibreel ferishta
Telecom companies can now start providing services without getting the key raw material— spectrum —from the government. Thanks to a recent clarification “subtly” made by the department of telecommunications (DoT), new telecom players like the realty major Unitech and Videocon-owned, Datacom, which have been granted licences but no spectrum, can start commercial operations by getting into intra-circle roaming pacts with existing operators.
The clarification dated June 12 basically allows operators to enter into mutual commercial agreements for intra-service roaming facilities with other licensed operators. With this, analysts said, the new operators without spectrum could put up mobile switching centres (MSCs) and get into pacts with existing operators for spectrum. This way, these operators can start operations, that too, without building any network by just trading in spectrum, which is otherwise not permissible. This will also ensure them a good valuation without investing much in creating any infrastructure.
spectrum TRAI DoT mobile switching centres licenses mobile telephony
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