Frequency Usage and Digital Dividend in India

Spectrum is a precious, non-perishable, natural resource available equally, in all countries. The optimum utilization of the spectrum by appropriate allocation is the foremost task of international and national governing bodies. This paper presents the spectrum utilization results of mobile telecom services particularly, GSM from the spectrum occupancy measurement campaign conducted in Pune, India. We observed the highest occupancy rate in the 2G cellular telecom services band. This shows the demand for mobile telecom services is high in India, and so for the spectrum. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has shown a huge demand for the spectrum in its future projection. There is an urgent need of spectrum allocation for the cellular telecom services in India. The results of our measurement campaign endorses the decision of India to identify the 698–806 MHz band (700 MHz band) for the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) services which is also in the line of ITU initiative of global harmonization in IMT band. Further, we discuss about the switchover plan from analogue to digital Television (TV) in India, and resulting digital dividend spectrum (700 MHz band) from spectrum refarming, which could be the solution for the spectrum requirement for mobile telecom services in India. The views of the different stakeholders about 700 MHz band plan is presented. Finally, the two harmonized frequency arrangement for IMT systems agreed by the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) for 700 MHz band is discussed.