2.2. Modern telecommunication technologies rely heavily on radio communications. Newer and newer radio communication services, technologies and applications are emerging on the horizon with tremendous speed, further exponentially increasing the demands on the already congested radio frequency spectrum, which is a scarce, limited natural resource and has to be shared among 40 different type of radio communication services. Thus, spectrum is the most fundamental, but at the same time, a highly scarce resource which is essential for development of all radio based telecommunication services.

2.3. Following the introduction of market liberalisation and competition in the United States and Europe in the early 1980s, the telecommunication business world-wide has changed from being stable in the early 1980s into a more dynamic and challenging environment. With the advent of mobile satellite systems, the telecommunication industry is now getting even more deregulated, competitive and exciting as shown in the figure given below :-

Stage of Telecommunication Environment Change since the 1980s

2.4. Origin of Spectral Constraints. All the NATO countries and several NATO allies have adopted the ‘NATO Band’ for their defence requirements of the spectrum. The non-‘NATO Band’ therefore accommodates most of the commercial / public service telecom in those countries. As most of the world production of telecom equipment comes from the NATO countries, the large volumes of demand and production have given them a high economy of scale thereby reducing the equipment prices. It is for this reason that most countries of the world, including India, buy their public–service telecom equipment requirements from the NATO countries or produce them locally based on their design which are in the non-‘ NATO Band’. Several countries, including India, have not adopted the ‘NATO Band’ for their Defence spectrum requirements. In view of this, the cost-effective commercial equipment bought by India from these countries fall in the non-‘NATO Band’, a good part of which overlaps the Indian Defence Spectrum bands. It is this important factor which has resulted in major contentions of the commercial public telecom services with the already occupied defence spectrum bands. Added to this, is the fact that Indian defence also buys a sizeable part of this telecom/radar and avionics equipment requirements from both NATO countries and non-NATO countries. These factors have resulted in major spectral constraints, in the bands allotted to defence.

2.5. Despite large growth and development of telecommunications in India since independence, the general availability of these services to public had been much below the world standards. Telecommunication sector was recognised by the Government of India as one of the few basic infrastructure sectors for the country. Under the Government policy of economic liberalisation, privatisation and competition in India, private sector has been allowed to enter the public telecommunication field (which was a Government monopoly), with the objective of making the telecommunications, within the reach of all, achieve universal service covering all villages, bringing the telecommunication services to the world standard, etc., while protecting the defence and security needs of the Country.

Fixed Telephone Lines & Mobile Services.

2.6. As per the Perspective Plan (1997-2007), to meet the objective of providing telephone on demand, the additional requirement of telephones during the period from 1997 to 2007 would be 66.4 million of which 23.7 million would be for the period from 1997-2002. It is expected that the number of fixed telephone lines would be 4 per 100 persons by the year 2002. There may be 9 telephones per 100 persons by the year 2007. The private sector is expected to provide approximately 25-30% of this growth in basic telephone service. More than 10% of these new lines are expected to be provided using wireless local loop (WLL). In consonance with the economic state of the country, the percentage growth of mobile phones and other related services is likely to overtake the fixed phone services. The efficient technologies shall be available with the passage of time. The price of mobile services would be competitive to fixed services. It is expected that the number of mobile phones of various types may be about 2.5 million by 2002 and 10 million by 2007.

2.7. The speed of technological progress, especially in the field of personal communications - both terrestrial and satellite based, presents vast opportunities for the telecommunication service providers as well as the users. Various technologies for Cellular mobile service, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) in the fixed service, radio paging and radio trunking services, Global Mobile Personal Communication through Satellite (GMPCS), etc. are emerging. The 3rd generation Cellular mobile systems, International Mobile Telephony (IMT) - 2000 and Universal Mobile Telephony System (UMTS), are some of the technologies under development for public telecommunications arena and are likely to be available in the beginning of the next century. IMT-2000/UMTS systems would be capable of providing a wide range of services, such as multi-media, video-conferencing and high speed internet access, and provide for an integration of terrestrial and satellite technologies. These technologies are not likely to be commercially available in India before the year 2004.

2.8. Most of these existing systems and new developments are using digital technology. The frequency bands around 800/900 MHz and 1700 - 2200 MHz are extensively exploited by these existing technologies and new developments are also taking place in these bands. Incidentally, these frequency bands are already very heavily used for various existing radio communication services and networks in India. Some future IMT-2000/UMTS applications may require transmission at very high data rates where the user is stationary and for such applications, it may be possible to utilise frequency bands above 3 GHz. These technologies are likely to be available in the long term.

2.9 Transition Path/Road Map for GSM Cellular and WLL technologies growth is at Appendix D.