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The telecom regulator wants the Government to speed up guidelines related to spectrum trading and mergers and acquisitions. Speaking to BusinessLine , TRAI Chairman Rahul Khullar said that until the Government puts in place reasonable trading and M&A policies, struggling operators will not be able to exit.
“Trading allows you to sell your spectrum to another party if that party is not interested in taking over assets like network and employees; M&A is another way. But the industry has told the Government that the existing guidelines don’t work. Unless you get reasonable trading and M&A guidelines out, an exit is simply not possible,” said Khullar.
“In the telecom business the most important asset is spectrum. If operators want to exit, the only thing they would get some value for is their spectrum. The Government has, however, taken the position that if anyone returns spectrum then they will not get any compensation. In effect the most important asset has no resale value. This is why we said trading should be allowed,” he added.
He also said that the Government should make more spectrum available in the next round of auctions failing which there would be a serious fallout on consumers, the industry, the banking sector and the Government.
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