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Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has provided its response to the back-reference received from Department of Telecommunications (DoT) regarding the TRAI recommendations dated 24.04.2024 on 'Telecommunication Infrastructure Sharing, Spectrum Sharing and Spectrum Leasing'.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in a reference dated 7 December 2021 under Section 11(1)(a) of the TRAI Act, 1997, requested the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to provide recommendations on permitting the sharing of core network elements such as Mobile Switching Centre (MSC), Home Location Register (HLR), and Intelligent Network (IN) among telecom operators.
Subsequently, on 10 February 2022, the DoT issued another reference, reiterating its earlier request and stating that, "to promote optimal resource utilisation among licensees, it is proposed to allow the sharing of all kinds of telecom infrastructure and network elements among all categories of service providers licensed under Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, for the provision of authorised telecom services." DoT sought TRAI’s recommendations on this proposal.
Considering requests from stakeholders to permit inter-band spectrum sharing and spectrum leasing in India, TRAI decided to address these issues alongside infrastructure sharing as part of the stakeholder consultation process.
Following extensive consultations with stakeholders, TRAI submitted its recommendations on ‘Telecommunication Infrastructure Sharing, Spectrum Sharing, and Spectrum Leasing’ to DoT on 24 April 2024.
However, in a back-reference dated 13 February 2025, DoT informed TRAI that, as per Section 11(1) of the TRAI Act 1997 (as amended), the Government has reached a prima facie conclusion that some of these recommendations may not be accepted or may require modifications. Consequently, the recommendations have been referred back to TRAI for reconsideration.
TRAI noted that, as per the existing provisions of the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) for the auction of frequency spectrum, intra-band spectrum sharing is permitted for telecom service providers (TSPs) after a lock-in period of one year, while TSPs are allowed to trade their spectrum after a lock-in period of two years.
Considering stakeholders' concerns regarding competition and the dynamics of spectrum auctions in relation to inter-band spectrum sharing, the Authority is of the view that it would be appropriate to maintain a lock-in period of two years from the date of acquisition of such spectrum. Therefore, inter-band access spectrum sharing should only be permitted after a lock-in period of two years from the date of its acquisition.
Intent Behind the Lock-in Period for Inter-band Spectrum Sharing
The authority’s recommendation to permit inter-band spectrum sharing only after a two-year lock-in period aims to mitigate any adverse impact on competition and the spectrum auction process.Addressing DoT’s Concerns on Operational Challenges
TRAI examined the Department of Telecommunications' (DoT) concerns regarding potential operational difficulties arising from the two-year lock-in condition on newly acquired spectrum.
The Authority noted that an access service provider holding a significant amount of spectrum in a particular frequency band (e.g., B1) may acquire a small amount of additional spectrum in the same band at a later stage (time T0). Under Recommendation No. 3.4(c) in its current form, such a provider would become ineligible to share its entire access spectrum in the frequency band B1 for a period of two years from time.
To prevent this issue, TRAI recommends that inter-band spectrum sharing should be permitted if a large majority of the spectrum holding in the respective frequency band meets the two-year lock-in condition. Based on recent access spectrum auctions held in 2021, 2022, and 2024, where some providers acquired small additional spectrum blocks (ranging from 0.2 MHz to 1.4 MHz) in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands amounting to 3% to 18% of their total post-auction spectrum holdings TRAI considers a threshold of 80% to be appropriate for allowing inter-band spectrum sharing.