Due to the 2G Telecom Spectrum Scam engineered by A. Raja, Honb’le Supreme Court of India had cancelled 122 Licenses and had asked TRAI to come out with Recommendations on Auction of Spectrum. TRAI had invited comments[PDF] from stakeholders and I had submitted my views.
It’s time to see how many of my views were accepted and have found mention in the TRAI Recommendations to DoT on the auction of 1800MHz Telecom Spectrum.
Liberalization of Spectrum
The Authority recommends that all spectrum to be assigned through the auction process in future shall be liberalised. In other words, spectrum in any band can be used for deploying any services in any technology.
The Authority recommends that the Service providers may be allowed to convert their existing 1800 MHz spectrum into liberalised spectrum on payment of the auction determined amount in which case they will be granted spectrum rights for a period of 20 years. They will be allowed to adjust the price paid by them for the existing spectrum on pro-rata basis for the balance period of the existing license.
So my recommendations are accepted as well. Refer Item 4 of my submission.
On Spectrum Trading
Therefore, the Authority recommends that Spectrum trading should be allowed between spectrum holders having obtained spectrum through auction or having paid the auction determined price for the spectrum held by them, only for the limited purpose of frequency configuration (arranging spectrum in a contiguous band)
My recommendations were Partly Accepted as TRAI currently only wants continuous blocks of allocation for efficiencies. They also want to discourage Spectrum Trading for non-operational purpose which can lead to speculation, was one of my suggestions too.
On Spectrum Mortgage
The Authority recommends that mortgage of spectrum may be allowed by spectrum holders to a registered Indian financial institution against borrowings. The mortgage will be subject to the condition that in the event of default of the liability, the spectrum shall be auctioned by the financial institution under the supervision of the DOT and all proceeds in excess of the liability shall be remitted to the Government.
TRAI makes note of my suggestion, 3.122
According to one of the stakeholders, views of the Reserve Bank of India must be separately sought by TRAI in this regard.
Stay tuned for other Updates!