The department of telecom on Thursday issued guidelines to liberalise the 2G spectrum whereby operators will be able to offer latest mobile services, including 4G, using the same radiowaves.

The logjam between the government and incumbent operators on the issue, which has been under litigation, is now expected to see some movement. “Existing CMTS/UAS/UL with access service authorisation licensees may liberalise their entire administratively alloted spectrum holding in 800 Mhz and 1,800 Mhz band in a service area for the balance validity period of right to use spectrum,” the guidelines said.

The development is likely to benefit almost all incumbent telecom operators like Reliance Communications, Aircel, Tata Teleservices, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. They hold spectrum that was allocated to them administratively along with their first licence at a price of Rs1,658 crore.

It may also help companies take full benefit of spectrum sharing and trading guidelines as well as expedite the consolidation process in the industry. “Administratively allocated spectrum in 800 Mhz and 1,800 Mhz bands refers to the spectrum allotted prior to auction of right to use spectrum in November 2012,” the guidelines said.