2G auction by Aug 31, quashed 2G licenses valid till Sept 07: SC

24 Apr 2012 Evaluate

After riding through road bumps, the victim telecom companies of 2G scam have news to cheer up. The Supreme Court has extended deadline of cancelling their licenses and they are valid till September 07, 2012. The SC had quashed these licenses in February 2012 which were issued through scam ridden process in 2008 by then telecom minister A Raja. The SC has also extended the deadline to conduct auction of the said 2G Spectrum to August 31, 2012.

The SC’s decision comes in the backdrop of telecom regulator - Telecom Regulatory Authority’s (TRAI) issued set of recommendations over the 2G auction. TRAI, post this order, is trying to speed up the process and will convene EGoM meeting before May 07.

On the other hand, the new pricing has got eyebrow raising reaction from the industry players and consumers. TRAI has increased the prices of 2G by over ten times then the prices at which the band was issued in 2008. The companies will have to shell out Rs 3,600 crore for pan-India spectrum renewal for a 5Mhz block, which is about 8 percent higher than even the pan-India 3G spectrum block. However, final call on the prices will be taken by EGoM headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The sector leaders like Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) had termed this pricing “arbitrary, regressive and inconsistent”. This increase in the prices had negative impact on the telecom stocks today which were down by 3-1%.

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