Spectrum sharing across bands on the cards

The department of telecommunications (DoT) may look at liberalising spectrum sharing guidelines before the auctions take place next year. Spectrum sharing, which currently allows operators to share spectrum only within a band wherein both parties hold spectrum, may be done away with. Sharing would be allowed across bands, sources said.

Around the time spectrum sharing was allowed and guidelines formulated, there were two technologies — GSM and CDMA — so sharing was not possible across technologies.