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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Why no auction of all cancelled spectrum: Supreme Court to government-Samanwaya Rautray

Why no auction of all cancelled spectrum: Supreme Court to government-Samanwaya Rautray

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published Published on Nov 9, 2012   modified Modified on Nov 9, 2012
-The Economic Times

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the government to immediately explain why it is restricting the sale of airwaves in the upcoming auctions, and not selling all spectrum vacated by the 122 licences whose permits were cancelled earlier this year.

But the apex court clarified that the upcoming airwaves sale process, scheduled to begin on November 12 ,would not be deferred, even as it asked the telecom department to submit its response on Friday.

"All spectrum vacated by our order (cancelling 2G licences) must be auctioned," Justice GS Singhvi, who's hearing the 2G case along with Justice K S Radhakrishnan, told the Central government.

"Why aren't you auctioning all spectrum vacated after our order," Justice Singhvi asked Additional Solicitor General AS Chandhiok who was representing the government in the case. "Why are you holding it back?"

The court was hearing the petition of Aditya Birla Group company Idea Cellular and the Cellular Operators Association of India, the industry body representing GSM operators, both of who had challenged the government's decision to restrict the sale of airwaves in the upcoming sale.

The Supreme Court in its February 2 orders quashed 122 mobile permits awarded by former telecom minister A Raja and asked the government to issue new licences through an auction process. While the SC order freed over 430 MHz of second generation airwaves on a pan-India basis, the government has decided to limit the sale to 271 MHz.

Opening arguments on the issue, COAI lawyer Aspi Chenoy said that 431 MHz of second generation airwaves was vacated by the apex court's February 2 verdict, but the government had only put 271 MHz up for auction.

The COAI has also sought that the court directs the government to include 83.6 MHz of GSM spectrum in the 1800 MHz band given to Tata Teleservices on the same date as the now-quashed 122 licences. But the court said it would deal with this issue separately.

The government awarded additional 19 GSM licences to Tata Teleservices through the same press release that it used to award the contentious 122 licences on January 10, 2008.

Chenoy further said that government's move to sell only part of the airwaves vacated by cancelled licences would result in a maximum of just two companies being able to win back their permits in the auctions. All this would adversely impact companies participating in the auction, he argued.

"Hoarding of a valuable natural resource (such as spectrum) will result in jacking up prices and bring in more profits (for the government)," said Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Idea.

In a related development, the court also issued notices to the Centre on a petition filed by The Association of Unified telecom Service Providers of India, the industry body representing CDMA players and dual-technology companies, challenging the government's move to award airwaves beyond the 6.2 MHz limit to several companies such as Vodafone, Airtel, Idea, Reliance, Loop and Spice. 

The Economic Times, 9 November, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/why-no-auction-of-all-cancelled-spectrum-supreme-court-to-government/articleshow/17150515.cms


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