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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has told the Central Bureau of Investigation that it was not possible to put a precise value for the 2G spectrum given out between 2001 and 2008, retrospectively. TRAI said it involves making assumptions on the then existing market conditions.
Backing the Government's stand on 2G policy, the telecom regulator also said that it had never recommended auctioning airwaves between 2003 and 2007.
The CBI, which is probing the 2G spectrum scam, had asked TRAI to quantify the exact loss to the government owing to allocation of spectrum to all operators. The regulator then appointed an expert committee to value the spectrum.
While the expert committee's report has given a range of figures, it does not give any precise value of spectrum and even the range value is based on assumptions.
Auctioning of spectrum
On the issue of auctioning spectrum, TRAI said it did not recommend sale of airwaves based on market mechanism keeping in view the need for growth of the telecom sector, including in the semi-urban and rural areas and the need to keep telecom services affordable.
“The grant of licence at Rs 1,659 crore was a matter of policy. While revenue generation is no doubt significant, NTP-99 underlines need for providing telecom services at affordable rates. It is against this backdrop that TRAI did not recommend auction methodology nor did it recommend any increase in entry fee for new players,” a draft TRAI letter to CBI stated.
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