National Telecom Policy 2011

• Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal announced major contours on spectrum management and licensing framework, which includes allowing operators to hold more spectrum, liberalising mergers and acquisitions, and a uniform licence fee regime.
• To be a major component of the proposed National Telecom Policy 2011, the new guidelines say all future licences will be ‘Unified Licences' that will be delinked from spectrum allocation, while all existing telecom licences will be migrated to the new regime.
• Mr. Sibal also said the prescribed limit on spectrum assigned to a service provider will be 2x8 MHz (paired spectrum) for GSM technology for all service areas other than Delhi and Mumbai where it will be 2x10 MHz (paired spectrum). The current prescribed limit is 2x6.2 MHz of GSM spectrum as per licence norms.
• Referring to merger and acquisitions, Mr. Sibal said the new regime would allow up to 35 per cent market share for the merged entity, while the government would the TRAI recommendation to consider market share up to 60 per cent. The new policy will allow spectrum sharing between operators in the same circle, while spectrum will not be permitted among licensees having 3G spectrum. Mr. Sibal also clarified that spectrum trading would not be allowed in India.