Leading telecom player Bharti airtel today said the government needs to identify more bands of airwaves to provide a fillip to the growth of mobile broadband in the country.

"New bands of spectrum need to be identified. For example, the 700 MHz band is one of them for mobile broadband.

700 MHz is an efficient band," Bharti airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor said at the GSMA-COAI event here.

The 700 MHz band of spectrum is with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Under the new frequency allocation plan, this frequency band has been proposed to be utilised for mobile and wireless broadband services.

However, this has been opposed by the I&B Ministry. The Department of Telecom is now working with the I&B Ministry to sort out the issue.

"We are having consultations with various ministries on vacation of spectrum and we expect there should be a resolution soon," Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal said.

The government will ensure adequate spectrum so that rural regions could be connected, he added.

This particular band (700 Mhz) is considered to be very efficient and could fetch the government revenues more than it got through auctioning of 3G spectrum (Rs 67,710 crore) last year.

"The government under its ambitious National Broadband Policy has set up a target to achieve 160 million broadband connections by 2014. To accomplish the task, more than three million new subscribers a month are needed," Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Senior Director Vikram Tewathia said.

Stressing that there is a need to bring in affordable devices, GSMA CEO Rob Conway said this would help connect a large chunk of population.

"Mobile broadband empowers communications and help engagement. India needs adequate spectrum to address the rural population, and we are optimistic about it," he said.