We need to thank Supreme Court for regular directives.
We do not know whether the telecom industry wants to buy additional spectrum during the 3rd round. It will depend on India’s economy growth. Though 514.8 MHz of spectrum was freed up as a result of the cancellation of licences, the government put up only 271.25 MHz of spectrum for auction in November 2012.
SC’s decision reflects lack of communication among DoT top bosses. It’s sad that till Feb 15, they could not understand earlier directives from the apex court.
India’s telecom ministry is slow to take actions. There are enough reasons to support my statement.
The entire world is ahead of us in both broadband, 3G and 4G — mobile broadband will drive Indian economy.
DoT now says Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel can offer voice services — using BWA spectrum — by paying $306 million as additional spectrum fee. Is it a small amount? Airtel makes billions of dollar every year from voice business.
READ MY LATEST ARTICLE HERE..
RIL can offer voice… but where’s network to offer 4G / LTE data?
By the way, several readers (thanks to our around one lakh visitors per month. Page views to telecomlead.com is around 5-7 lakh per month) last week told me that Supreme Court should not be challenged. I agree. But majority of the telecom industry has a different view. I write for supporting the growth of the industry in India.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram can achieve the ministry’s target (from telecom industry) for 2013-14 if DoT conducts the third round of auction in 2013.
Baburajan K
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