According to Shivraj patil, arbitrary decisions taken by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officials may have helped Bharti airtel and Idea Cellular obtain spectrum.
For instance, additional spectrum of 2 MHz + 2 MHz beyond 8 MHz + 8 MHz was allotted to Bharti airtel in 2003 (during the NDA regime) for the Delhi circle, though no criteria for allotment of the same was in existence.
According to the report, this decision was taken on the basis of an internal note circulated by the then concerned engineer and approved by the wireless advisor and his deputies. This, the report said, was arbitrary and selective besides being unfair to other intending applicants.
Idea Cellular has also benefitted, as it was provided with extra time to acquire eligibility. The company had applied for a licence for the Mumbai circle in August 2005, while the letter of intent (LoI) was issued in November 2006. According to the report, in the intervening period, time was extended to enable the applicant to acquire eligibility.
However, there were also instances when these operators were not shown preference. For example, for the Chennai service area, a decision was taken to divide the available spectrum of 1.4 MHz + 1.4 MHz between Bharti airtel and Aircel, irrespective of their priority breaching the first come first serve criteria.
On the basis of a note put up by another official, Idea Cellular’s application for licence for the West Bengal circle was returned with the remarks “could not be seen” by the telecommunications minister?s office.
Also, the further processing of the file was also withheld on the ground that a proposal had been submitted to the minister to process the applications only after receiving recommendations from the Telcom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
In deviation from the prescribed procedures, start-up spectrum to Spice Communications/Idea Cellular was withheld on the ground that proposal of their merger was pending, the report said.
