The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has stated that the spectrum sharing and trading guidelines will be finalised by June 2015. Meanwhile, the new penalty rules are likely to be out by mid-May 2015.

Spectrum sharing guidelines will allow telecom companies to share their unutilised spectrum with other service providers within the same telecom circle. Earlier in 2014, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had recommended sharing of all categories of spectrum held by operators. Apart from this, TRAI had recommended to allow trading of spectrum.

As of now, only the government is allowed to allocate spectrum to telecom operators through auctions. Once the trading is allowed, it is expected to increase the efficient use of spectrum as it will enable telecom operators to trade their unutilised spectrum.