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Uninor on Tuesday filed an application in Supreme Court seeking its intervention against the telecom regulator's proposals to sell 2G spectrum.
The company said the TRAI recommendations are not in line with the February order of the Supreme Court.
“Today, we sought the Supreme Court's permission to file an interim application to bring this to the court's attention. The court has allowed us to file an application and stated that it is open to hearing our arguments,” Uninor said in a statement.
The apex court, while cancelling 122 licences issued in 2008, had ordered the TRAI to work out the modalities for auctioning 2G spectrum.
The key difference between the new 2G players and the TRAI recommendation is in the way they have interpreted the Supreme Court order.
New players, including Uninor, are of the view that the Supreme Court's order was to auction licences which means that incumbent operators which already have a licence should not be allowed to participate in the auction.
Uninor had stated this in its submission to the TRAI while suggesting a three-phase auction wherein the first round is restricted only to new operators. These operators argue that the purpose of the auction is to give the new players a fair chance to get back the cancelled licence through a market mechanism.
However, the TRAI has suggested an open auction with no restrictions. Uninor is also peeved at the high base price proposed by the TRAI.
Norway's Telenor, the majority shareholder in Uninor, on Monday said that it will not be able to participate in the auction if the TRAI proposals are accepted. The regulator has suggested a base price of Rs 18,000 crore for 5 Mhz spectrum in the 1800 Mhz band.
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