The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is likely to allocate 2G spectrum to service providers which won spectrum in the auctions concluded in February 2014. Following, the completion of the process of swapping of spectrum between operators, DoT is looking forward to fasttracking the process of allocation of spectrum to the operators.

Earlier, operators had approached DoT to swap spectrum won by them in the 1,800 MHz band which would provide them access to contiguous spectrum and therefore help in offering long term evolution services. Majority of the operators have successfully swapped their spectrum and DoT soon plans to issue letter of intent to the players.

Five operators had approached DoT for swapping spectrum. These included Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), Idea Cellular and Telewings Communications Limited.

Following the requests, Bharti Airtel’s spectrum has been rearranged in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab while Vodafone India’s frequencies have been rearranged in Haryana, Kolkata, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh (East). Further, Idea Cellular’s frequencies have been rearranged in Punjab, RJIL’s frequencies in Kolkata and Northeast and Telewings Limited’s frequencies have been rearranged in Uttar Pradesh (East and West).

In the auctions held in February 2014, the government received bids worth Rs 375.726 for spectrum in the 1800 MHz band. In the auctions, Bharti Airtel won 2G spectrum in 15 out of 22 service areas for Rs 99.06 billion, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular won spectrum in 11 service areas for Rs 83.83 billion and Rs 70.10 billion, respectively. Other players including RJIL and Telewings Communications Limited won spectrum in 14 and five circles for Rs 110.54 billion and Rs 8.44 billion, respectively.