The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is likely to seek approval of the Union Cabinet on the issue of spectrum swap with the Ministry of Defence in January 2015.  This comes in accordance with DoT’s reported plans of auctioning 20 MHz of spectrum in 2100 MHz band in February 2015.

The telecom department is of the view that it is not necessary to swap 3G spectrum by February; the actual swapping can happen by July 2015. However, DoT is trying to ensure that auctions in the 2100 MHz band is held along with 800 MHz, 900 MHz and 1800 MHz band in February 2015, as recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The Ministry of Communications and IT has already reached an in-principle agreement with the Ministry of Defence for swapping 15 MHz of spectrum in the 2100 MHz band that is currently held by the defence forces in exchange for spectrum in the 1900 MHz band, which is currently held by DoT.