India on Wednesday approved the much-awaited spectrum trading norms for telecom companies so that this scarce resource can be put to optimal use, Communications and IT Minsiter Ravi Shankar Prasad said here."We have approved the spectrum trading norms today. Now the telecom companies can trade spectrum among themselves. For this, they need not take any government permission," Prasad said in a briefing after the union cabinet approved the proposal."The telecom companies only need to inform the government 45 days in advance before trading and they have to give an undertaking," the minister said, adding that trading would also resolve the problem of fragmented spectrum holding in India.
Terming the decision as a "revolutionary step", Prasad said: "Spectrum trading has been permitted in all the bands."Almost a month ago, the government approved spectrum sharing guidelines, which are expected to address the issue of mobile phone call drops and the quality of services as also optimise the use of radio frequency spectrum for telecom services.The TRAI in mid-June had sent its recommendations on sharing of airwaves to the Telecom Commission. While the operators hailed it, they did not appreciate the idea of a fee proposed on such sharing. The operators felt that the government, having already raised massive sums of money by way of auction of spectrum, should not levy additional fee.