Despite strong discontent from industry stakeholders, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has retained its recommendations on high reserve price for 2G spectrum auction .
Responding to the Department of Telecom (DoT’s) reference on Trai’s recommendations on “Auction of Spectrum” dated April 23, the regulatory body has said “The reserve price for spectrum has been estimated on the basis of the perceived value of spectrum to the user”.
The industry has strongly opined that the exorbitantly high reserve prices will be ruinous for them, and the same sentiment has been echoed by leading independent financial analysts, other industry bodies like CII, FICCI, banks, Research firms like Analysys Mason and consulting firms such as PwC, E&Y, etc.
This will have serious public interest and public policy impacts and hence would be critically detrimental to the interests of the consumers and the nation and would inadvertently mark the nail in the coffin for the already struggling industry. “A definite death knell” as states by Rajan S Mathews, Director General, COAI.
Renowned academicians such as Prof. Rekha Jain and Prof. Jhunjhunwala have also expressed their dissent and concerns on the recommendations and their imminent consequences on the consumer, nation and the Industry.
COAI vehemently rejects the flawed and biased recommendations put forth by TRAI and disapproves of the discriminatory environment between dual technology operators and GSM Operators and the subsequent violations of the level playing field.
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