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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov 29 The battle for spectrum between various mobile operators is now taking a political turn. The Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party has written to the Prime Minister that the Government should auction 2G mobile spectrum as it would not only be a clean and fair method but also bring revenues to the exchequer.

“By the method of auction the public exchequer may earn Rs 40,000 crore or even more. This amount will go a long way to implement schemes for poverty alleviation and public services including infrastructure,” the letter signed by Mr Manohar Joshi and Mr Anant Geete said.

In another letter Mr Abani Roy of the Communist Party of India and Member of Standing Committee on Railways has urged the Prime Minister to order a CBI enquiry as to how existing GSM players have got 10 Mhz spectrum when they are entitled to get only 6.2 Mhz.

“A lobby of major telecom operators, i.e., the Cellular Operators Association of India is working with the sole aim of furthering their interests at the cost of country’s development and in other words blocking the entry of new entrants in the sector as they do not want competition,” Mr Roy’s letter said.

Mr Jitin Prasada, Member of Parliament has also sought Prime Minister’s intervention to make sure that non-serious players do not get spectrum. Mr Chandrababu Naidu, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh has told the PM that the skewed policies should not derail the growth story witnessed by the telecom sector.

Intensifying the battle for spectrum further Singapore based Temasek Holdings has also shot off a letter to the PM expressing concern at the spectrum allocation policy. “I write to keep you informed of my concerns regarding the latest proposals for the allocation of wireless spectrum in India.

The latest proposals (Telecom Engineering Centre’s report) risk making private operators sub-scale, when they have a real window of opportunity to be global champions,” Mr Ho Ching, Executive Director and CEO, Temasek Holdings, said in a letter to the PM. Temasek is a major investor in SingTel, which has about 30 per cent equity in Bharti Airtel.

Temasek’s concerns were echoed by Airtel’s Chairman Mr Sunil Mittal. “Foreign investment has played a key role in the growth of telecom sector and they are a worried lot. Government must put its mathematics right. Ignorance is not an excuse to change the norms,” Mr Mittal told reporters on the sidelines of India-EU Business Summit.

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Battle for spectrum takes political turn

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