The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a consultation paper on the pricing and allocation of microwave in access and backbone networks.

Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications had asked the regulatory body to come up with recommendations for allocation and pricing of microwave access (MWA) and microwave backbone (MWB) radio frequency carriers.

In the consultation paper, TRAI has stated that going forward the requirement of mobile backhaul capacity is expected to grow significantly due to the increasing use of multimedia and other data centric applications being provided through the deployment of third and fourth generation technologies. The regulatory body has sought comments from industry stakeholders on issues such as number of microwave carriers to be assigned to telecom operators in case of 2G, 3G and broadband wireless technologies and the preferred mechanism of assignment of the carriers, the criteria for allocation of additional carriers and pricing mechanism.

Industry stakeholders are required to submit their comments and counter comments by April 21 and 28, 2014, respectively.