Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) are set to sign a spectrum sharing and trading agreement next week, the Economic Times reports, citing unnamed sources. The deal is expected to see RCOM sell its 850MHz spectrum in twelve circles to RJIL for around INR45 billion (USD673 million), the proceeds from which will be used to pay the bulk of the INR69.53 billion sought by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to liberalise the spectrum – under the rules governing the sharing or trading of airwaves in India, operators are first required to pay the government the market-determined price for any spectrum which they did not purchase via auction, a process known as ‘liberalising’ the spectrum. Following the sale, the pair will sign an agreement to share 850MHz spectrum in all 22 circles, enabling both cellcos to offer pan-India LTE services in the 850MHz band.