Facts about SPECTRUM Scam.

One of the Reasons of Fall of Roman Empire was the Roman Parliament the PALAZZO.
It came out to be a House of Lies, Likes and Dislikes.  The Shameless sessions on unimportant
issues continued for days and national interest was suppressed with survival of silliest caricatures resulted
in the downfall of the mighty Roman Empire.
Are we heading towards that situation?

Know the Spectrum Scandal.

TRAI:       Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

NTP  :      New Telecom Policy.

ITU   :      International Telecom Union.

CMTS:      Cellular Mobile Telephone service.

Spectrum: Electro Magnetic Radiations of different wave-length.

2Gservice:Voice and data services.(2Gspectrum)

3Gservice: Voice Data and Video services.(3Gspectrum)

                                                                                                            

There was no commercial value of Spectrum prior to 1994.

The demand for Spectrum was felt in 1994, when in accordance with

the National Telecom Policy, NPT-1994, the Telecom Service Sector

was opened up for the private sector.

The licensing of Cellular mobile services was done in two phases. In the first phase two Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS) licenses were awarded in November 1994 to Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Loop Mobile and Vodafone in the four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and that the price of Spectrum was to be

fixed in such a manner so as to ensure its optimum utilization by

awarding it to the user who would score the highest against a group

of the extant criteria such as rural coverage or the fulfillment of roll

out obligations. 


Although, license fee for the above two licenses was

predetermined, Spectrum charges and royalty for use of Spectrum

were payable separately.

In the second phase, two CMTS licenses

were awarded in December, 1995 to Bharti, Idea, Reliance and

Vodafone in 18 Telecom Circles/Service areas based on a competitive

bidding process.

The industry pleaded that they could not attain large

growth of business and they were not able to achieve the expected

returns on their huge investments, the Commitment for high license

fee could not be honored.

The Government revisited the extant

Telecom Policy and thus the New Telecom Policy, 1999 was

formulated which stipulated the availability of affordable and

effective communications for the citizens and open up the telecom

sector to a greater competitive environment in both urban and rural

areas providing equal opportunities and level playing field for all the

players.

One of the most important features of the NTP – 1999 was

that the Government would invariably seek the recommendations of

the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI on the number and

timing of new licenses before taking any decision on the issue of new

licenses in future. 


Thus, the Government made it clear that the entry

of more operators in a Circle/Service area was required to be based on

the TRAI's recommendations. The concept of revenue sharing regime

was brought in with a view to providing relief to the Access Service

Providers i.e. Cellular Mobile Service Providers, Fixed Service

Providers and Cable Service Providers.

The revenue sharing regime

contemplated payment of one time entry fee and license fee based on

revenue share. In accordance with it, the Government allowed the

existing licensees to migrate from the fixed license fee regime under

NTP – 94 to a revenue sharing regime under NTP – 99.

All the existing BSOs and CMSPs migrated to the revenue sharing regimes, w.e.f. 1 August, 1999 according to which a share of 15 per cent of the Adjusted Gross Revenue, AGR was chargeable as license fee from 

CMSPs and the BSOs. Subsequently, the share was modified to the

slabs of 12 per cent, 10 per cent and 8 per cent of the AGR depending

on the size of the Circle/Service Area which was further revised to 10

per cent, 8 per cent and 6 per cent. 


This revenue share was payable

quarterly. Apart from the license fee, the Operators were also

required to pay onetime non-refundable entry fee before signing the

new license agreement. Thus, in accordance with the provisions of

NTP-99 three types of fees were prescribed viz., (i) fixed percentage of

AGR as annual license fee, (ii) A fixed percentage of AGR of CMSPs as

annual Spectrum charge and (iii) One time entry fee before signing the

license agreement. In 1999-2000, MTNL and BSNL were awarded

CMTS licenses as the third mobile operator. In September-October

2001, 17 new CMTS licenses were issued on a competitive bidding

process. 


The allotment of Spectrum was assured under the license

and no separate upfront fee was charged for Spectrum. In 2003 the

Unified Access Service, UAS Licensing regime was introduced which

envisaged the provision of wire line, fixed and limited mobile wireless,

full mobile wireless and cellular mobile telephone services under one

license on payment of the prescribed entry fee. 


As per the condition

of the UAS license, initial Spectrum of 4.4 MHz + 4.4 MHz was to be

allotted for GSM based systems and a maximum of 2.5 MHz + 2.5 MHz

Spectrum to be allotted for CDMA based systems, on case by case

basis and subject to availability. Incremental Spectrum beyond the

initial allotment was linked to be subscriber base achieved by an

operator. 


Since 2004, the Department have been issuing new Unified

Access Service Licenses and allotting 2G Spectrum on continuous and

First-Come-First served basis. Between 2004 and 2007 51 new UAS

licenses were issued after the introduction of the UAS licensing

regime on 11th November, 2003. 


Based on a reference made to the

TRAI in April 2007 and TRAIs consequent recommendations of 'no

cap' on the number of players in a service area and introduction of

dual technology licenses, the DOT issued 35 dual technology licenses

and 122 UAS Licenses in 2007-08. 


The procedure followed by DOT for

issue of these 157 licenses smacked of serious irregularities leading

to staggering loss to the exchequer. The Committee's detailed

examination of this subject based on oral depositions by several

witnesses and scores of written documents obtained from various

sources has revealed gross violation of the established norms, rules

and procedures, dereliction of duties on the part of

Ministries/Departments concerned, scant regard, bordering on

contempt, for considered suggestions/opinions of the

people/organization that mattered etc. which are highlighted in the

succeeding paragraphs. 


The Committee have also taken stock of the

progress in the rural telephony, broadband connection, harmful effects

of the EMF radiation etc.