Trai seeks views on regulating spectrum for aviation for communication

Telecom regulator Trai on Saturday issued a consultation paper to explore regulating communications services being provided by two entities to airlines using very high frequency band spectrum.

Based on a reference from the Department of Telecom, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is exploring methodology through which spectrum should be assigned keeping in mind the Supreme Court judgement in the 2G case which ordered the allocation of spectrum to entities for commercial use to be based on market determined prices.

The telecom ministry had allocated very high frequency, which is between 30 to 300 Mhz band, to two agencies --Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques (SITA) and Bird Consultancy Services (BCS) for data communication link between aircraft and ground stations.

In the consultation paper on 'Data Communication Services Between Aircraft and Ground Stations Provided by Organizations', Trai has asked "Whether there is a need to bring data ...