Providing a huge respite to telecom operators whose 2G licences were cancelled last year, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed them to operate their services beyond the January 18 deadline, till the next hearing on February 4. The SC also asked the government to reveal the price to be charged for continuing the service after licence cancellation of last year.
“We want to know what is the price. Just put it in a sealed envelope what is the amount to be paid (by the existing operators of 2G) after our order of February 2, 2012,” a SC bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan said. “The existing operators are allowed to continue operations till the next date of hearing [February 4].”
The apex court asked DoT’s counsel to gather information about the telcos that had won the licence in the first round of auction held in November last year. The court sought information with regards to the base price for the second round of the auction to be held in March this year. It also asked the DoT to provide information about the operators, whose licence were canclled in February 2012, participated in the recent auctio.
“How many licencees stopped operation and secondly you have to find out what decision you have taken to fix price for future auction,” the bench asked.
On the proposed reduction in reserve price, the court commented, “The price in the first round of auction was different and now you are reducing the the price in the second round of auction (to be held on March 11) which is bound to generate litigation…we are not concerned with litigation.”
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on spectrum recently proposed a 30-50 percent cut in the reserve price of 800MHz band used for CDMA-based mobile services. The auction for the CDMA band will be held in March this year.
The proposal to reduce base price in view of flop November auctions. Successful bids for 18 out of 22 circles in the 1800MHz band were received. Major circles such as Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka and Rajasthan went without bidding. No bids were received in any of the 21 areas in the 800MHz band.
Source: Deccan Herald
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