<p>Acting swiftly following Thursday’s Supreme Court scrapping 122 licences in its verdict on the 2G scam, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has brought out a pre-consultation paper on “Allocation of spectrum in 2G band in 22 service areas by auction.”<br /><br /></p>.<p>Coming within 24 hours of the apex court ruling, the Trai has given time to stakeholders to send in their suggestions/ comments by February 15, 2012.<br /><br />In a statement, Trai said quoting the SC verdict: “Keeping in view the decision taken by the Central Government in 2011, Trai shall make fresh recommendations for grant of licence and allocation of spectrum in 2G band in 22 Service Areas by auction, as was done for allocation of spectrum in 3G band.” <br /><br />Denouncing the first-come-first-served policy of the Trai, the court laid down that all future allocations should be through auction.<br /><br />Trai recalled that in 2010, it had recommended that all future licences be unified licences and that spectrum be delinked from the licence.<br /><br />Following this recommendation, “Draft Guidelines for Unified Licensing Regime were also placed on TRAI website www.trai.gov.in for comments of the stakeholders.”<br /><br />A division bench of the SC on Thursday came down harshly on Trai for the entire approach adopted by it and said the recommendations made by it were flawed in many respects. The verdict said its implementation by the department of telecom resulted in gross violation of the objective of national telecom policy of 1999.<br /><br />It is estimated that 536 Mhz of 2G spectrum will be freed following the cancellation of the 122 licences.<br /><br />Almost a year ago, Trai had recommended fixing the price for 6.2 Mhz of pan-India start-up 2G spectrum at Rs 10,972.45 crore, more than six times the cost of Rs 1,658 crore at which the spectrum was allocated to new players whose licences have been ordered to be cancelled by the Supreme Court.<br /><br />According to Trai’s statement, comments may be sent, preferably in electronic form to Sudhir Gupta, Principal Adviser (MS), Trai, who may be contacted at Tel No. +91-11- 23220018, Fax No. +91-11-23212014 or email at pradvmn@trai.gov.in.</p>
<p>Acting swiftly following Thursday’s Supreme Court scrapping 122 licences in its verdict on the 2G scam, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has brought out a pre-consultation paper on “Allocation of spectrum in 2G band in 22 service areas by auction.”<br /><br /></p>.<p>Coming within 24 hours of the apex court ruling, the Trai has given time to stakeholders to send in their suggestions/ comments by February 15, 2012.<br /><br />In a statement, Trai said quoting the SC verdict: “Keeping in view the decision taken by the Central Government in 2011, Trai shall make fresh recommendations for grant of licence and allocation of spectrum in 2G band in 22 Service Areas by auction, as was done for allocation of spectrum in 3G band.” <br /><br />Denouncing the first-come-first-served policy of the Trai, the court laid down that all future allocations should be through auction.<br /><br />Trai recalled that in 2010, it had recommended that all future licences be unified licences and that spectrum be delinked from the licence.<br /><br />Following this recommendation, “Draft Guidelines for Unified Licensing Regime were also placed on TRAI website www.trai.gov.in for comments of the stakeholders.”<br /><br />A division bench of the SC on Thursday came down harshly on Trai for the entire approach adopted by it and said the recommendations made by it were flawed in many respects. The verdict said its implementation by the department of telecom resulted in gross violation of the objective of national telecom policy of 1999.<br /><br />It is estimated that 536 Mhz of 2G spectrum will be freed following the cancellation of the 122 licences.<br /><br />Almost a year ago, Trai had recommended fixing the price for 6.2 Mhz of pan-India start-up 2G spectrum at Rs 10,972.45 crore, more than six times the cost of Rs 1,658 crore at which the spectrum was allocated to new players whose licences have been ordered to be cancelled by the Supreme Court.<br /><br />According to Trai’s statement, comments may be sent, preferably in electronic form to Sudhir Gupta, Principal Adviser (MS), Trai, who may be contacted at Tel No. +91-11- 23220018, Fax No. +91-11-23212014 or email at pradvmn@trai.gov.in.</p>
