No guidelines, notification on FCFS policy: JPC

New Delhi, Sep 14 (PTI) The National Democratic Alliance
(NDA) government had rushed through with the now controversial
'first come first serve' policy for issuing mobile telephony
licenses, a move that benefited Tata Teleservices and Bharti
Cellular, Indian Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) Chairman
P C Chacko indicated Wednesday.
Chacko, briefing reporters after recording of evidence of
former Telecom Secretary Vinod Vaish, said detailed guidelines
were also not issued with regard to the 'first come first
serve' (FCFS) policy which was not even notified to the public
"so that only those interested would apply".
"The Committee pointed out that while processing the
Letter of Intent for Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and
Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL), Director, Value Added Services
(in the Department of Telecom) in a note recorded that
spectrum to be alloted subject to availability," he said.
"This in effect would imply that an applicant who comes
first will be allotted the license first. So, it will result
in grant of license on first come first serve basis," Chacko
said.
He said the Director (VAS) put up this note on November
21, 2003 to Vaish who concurred the next day. The then Telecom
Minister Arun Shourie approved it the same day.
Chacko said the Committee wanted to know why the proposal
was not examined in detail and recommendations of TRAI were
not taken into consideration before approval by the minister.
He said Committee also took serious note that detailed
guidelines for the FCFS were not issued for checking future
misuse and that the policy was not notified to the public.
When asked about this, Vaish told the Committee that
there were not many takers and hence a notification was not
issued.
Vaish said those interested were aware of the changes.
Chacko said the entry fee for Unified Access Service
licensees were fixed following a telephonic conversation
between Vaish and the then TRAI Chairman Pradip Baijal.
He said the TRAI chairman took the decision in his
individual capacity to fix the entry fee for UASL equal to the
entry fee paid by the fourth cellular operator in a particular
telecom circle.
It was also decided that in case there was no fourth
operator, the entry fee would be based on the charges fixed by
the government for basic service operators, Chacko said.
When asked about the need for such urgency, Vaish told
the JPC that it was done so as there were petitions before the
Supreme Court for a stay on grant of UASL.
Chacko said TRAI recommendations on introducing
additional players in mobile telcom sector through multi-stage
bidding proccess was not followed.
Quizzed on this aspect, Vaish told the JPC that the TRAI
recommendations had to be seen harmoniously with the other
suggestions made by the telecom regulator.
Vaish said that the TRAI recommendations on multi-stage
bidding were made for the then existing licensing regime and
not for UASL.
"Vaish's replies were not convincing for the committee,"
Chacko said.
On the two per cent reduction of license fee suggested by
Shourie and concurred to by the then Finance Minister, Vaish
told the JPC that the step was necessary to protect the
industry and speeding up growth.