Wireless is Jammed, Please take the Wired route

Category: Government | No Comments | Posted on February 28, 2006

In order to manage the spectrum bandwidth crunch, DoT is asking non-commercial users such as defence agencies to switch to wired communication and use optical cable.

It is not only the non-commercial users but also the private cellular operators who are hit by the spectrum crunch. DoT is asking them to exploit optical fibre resources to the utmost for establishing connection between towers. However, the department maintains that this does not force any operator to use cable only, it is a voluntary effort to cope up with the spectrum crunch.

The problem arose with the demand of defence agencies to avail the spectrum without any bias towards mobile operators. While defence forces are the largest users of the spectrum, mobile operators were experiencing degradation in the provided services due to the crunch. To address the shortage of spectrum, DoT is working on a detailed spectrum policy to release additional spectrum for operators.

The axis of the trouble is the frequency — the 1800 Mhz, 800 Mhz and 900 Mhz bands — allocated to mobile operators in the country. The same spectrum is also used by defence agencies leading to the crisis.

Source: EFY Times