NEW DELHI: The government is examining whether telecom spectrum can be allocated administratively at the price that was discovered through auction, a process which was stopped following the Supreme Court verdict in the 2G spectrum case.
“A decision has to be taken whether that auction price can be applied administratively and in what circumstances. Those are issues on which a proper policy is in process of being formulated. Then it will also have to be taken to competent authority for approval,” telecom secretary R Chandrashekhar told PTI today, his last day in office.
He said the Supreme Court ruling of February 2, 2012 and its reply to Presidential Reference has brought clarity with respect to allocation of spectrum, and on that basis an internal committee of Department of Telecom is working out details for spectrum allocation.
The Supreme Court judgement had asked the government to allocate spectrum through auction but in its reply to the Presidential Reference, the apex court had clarified that the order was with respect to the spectrum allocation made in January 2008 only.
“It is clear that all types of spectrum cannot be auctioned because there are many kind of spectrum apart from access spectrum for use of VSAT or spectrum for point to point, closed user group, on… There has to be policy on those kind of allocation,” Chandrashekhar said.
The telecom secretary said that there is an existing process that was being followed for allocation of spectrum which will need to be reviewed in the light of access spectrum (that is allocated for mobile telephony).
“Even with regard to this (access) spectrum which is being priced through a auction process… It has to be examined as to what circumstances it can be done. The price has to be set through auction,” Chandrashekhar said.
Source-Times Of india
