Pranab on Telecom licenses and Spectrum issues

New Delhi, Sep 22 (PTI) Two weeks before a decision was
taken to allot new 2G licenses in 2008, the then External
Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the Department of
Telecom(DoT) may "continue to follow the existing policy" for
license distribution till further changes are made.
In an official note to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh who sought his views on "Telecom Licences and Spectrum
Issues", Mukherjee also suggested a transparent framework for
granting spectrum and that the criteria for the grant of
licences may be strengthened and put in public domain at the
earliest. Mukherjee at that time was also heading the
Group of Ministers(GoM) on spectrum related issues.
The note was accessed through a RTI query by Advocate
Vivek Garg to the Prime Minister's Office seeking details of
all correspondence in connection with 2G spectrum allocation.
The note was sent on December 26, 2007, a fortnight
before a decision was taken by the then Telecom Minister A
Raja to give 122 new 2G licenses embedded with 4.4 Mhz of
spectrum to telecom firms at 2001 prices of Rs 1,651 for pan
India operations.
"Para 11 of these guidelines(for Unified Access Services
License" notified on December 14, 2005) clearly say that the
licenses shall be issued without any restriction on the number
of entrants for provision of Unified Access Services in a
service area.
"Department of Telecommunications (DOT) may continue to
follow this policy till any further changes are made in this
regard," Mukherjee said.
He, however, had suggested that allocation from the
available spectrum may be made first to the existing operators
followed by those who were issued licences in December 2006
and then to those who have applied for cross-over technology
on "first-come-first-served" basis.
"While under the existing policy, the government may
keep on issuing new licenses, the criteria for the grants of
licenses may be strengthened and put in public domain at the
earliest," Mukherjee had said.
"While it is the prerogative of the government to
frame, revise and change the policy, it is also the
responsibility of the government to do so in a transparent
manner and then follow the stated policy both in letter and
spirit.
"Thus, it is essential for DOT to issue the new norms
immediately so that the spectrum allocation is done in a
transparent manner," Mukherjee's note had said.
He said that enforcement of stringent norms may lead to
change in the entitlement of existing license holders and may
increase the availability of the spectrum for new license
holders.