India's union Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry has agreed to free up spectrum in the 700-MHz band for the telecom ministry.

The department of telecommunications (DoT) is planning to sell the spectrum in the auction to allow service providers to roll out the 4G services or the wireless broadband services in the country.

India's union telecom minister, Kapil Sibal said, The issue of spectrum in the 700-MHz band has been resolved. By and large, all the issues related to vacation of spectrum have been resolved. The EGoM will meet again next week."

Sibal said that the issue over the release of spectrum in the 1700-2000 MHz by the defense forces will also be resolved soon and the government will offer the freed auction to the telecom service providers in the country.

Sibal has said that the government is planning to auction the fourth generation (4G) mobile airwaves to the telecom service providers by within this year. He said that the government would auction enough spectrum for all the operators in the country. The government will have additional spectrum because of the scraping of 122 (2G) licenses by the Supreme Court in the auction scandal case and the defense forces are also expected to vacate spectrum for the ministry.

Sibal also said that the government might not offer all the spectrum in a single auction however the final decision on the matter will be taken after the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).