The dispute between defence and telecom on vacating spectrum must end

After the ministries of defence and telecom agreed, in May 2009, to make 45 MHz of spectrum used for defence purposes available for commercial 2G and 3G mobile services, there has been regular exchange of letters between the two ministries, but no action to release spectrum. The ministry of defence says that its commitment was subject to the department of telecom ( DoT )) laying a Rs 10,000 crore optical fibre network for it and, further, waiving any charges for spectrum use for defence purposes. 

These conditions have not been met and so Defence is not in a position to release any spectrum now. At a time when the number of subscribers continues to grow at a rapid pace and spectrum availability squeezes telecom companies' ability to offer quality service, this is not an acceptable state of affairs. When two ministries of the government are unable to reach an agreement on a matter that concerns both of them, it should be resolved through an intervention by the Prime Minister . And the matter brooks no delay. 

The effort should be to provide every Indian with highspeed data connectivity, for India to realise the productive potential of her 1.2 billion people. Developed countries are making sound progress in this regard; the French now deeming broadband access a fundamental right and the US rolling out a national broadband plan to provide every home with 100 Mbps connectivity (in India, mere 256 kbps still qualifies as broadband). It is also criminal to permit state-owned broadcaster Prasar Bharati to squat on a huge swathe of spectrum that it uses for analogue terrestrial broadcast. 

There is every need to fully fund and accelerate Prasar Bharati's desultory digitalisation programme, so as to release additional spectrum for mobile networks. India has to target achieving a high-speed data network reaching all parts of the country, on which voice is just one functionality. For meaningful inclusion of the poor in the growth process, such data networks are imperative, to provide banking, health and education services. Wireless would be an integral part of it. The PM must ensure availability of the needed spectrum, amidst the squabbles among his ministers.

Wait Could Be Longer For Better 3G Services

The promise of high-end phone services by mobile firms through the much-hyped third generation (3G) telecom technology seems to have hit a roadblock as customers complain of frequent call drops and inconsistent internet speeds.

Experts say it could take between six and nine months for the service to stabilise.

Anuj Kumar, a Delhi-based banker, preferred switching back to the 2G network after he got exasperated by deficient service and inconsistent network coverage.
"Problems of call drops increased once I switched to 3G network. The voice quality also became very poor. I was left with no option but to switch back to the basic network. In my line of job uninterrupted calls are a must," Kumar told IANS.
Pratibha Srivastava, a sales manager with a leading private bank, had similar grievance.
"The connectivity on the 3G network is very, very poor, especially when a person is on the move. While the network disconnects frequently, the voice quality is also not good at all," said Srivastava.
Among the nine-million odd people who are estimated to have opted for 3G services in the country, there are many others like Kumar and Srivastava who are facing similar problems with their services across the country.
The private telecom operators who shelled out billions for buying spectrum claim that every new technology needed some time for maturing and becoming consistent. According to them it was a matter of time for consumers to experience the promised quality of 3G.
But Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman J.S. Sarma does not agree with the claims of operators.
"It is high time customers start getting quality services for the money they are paying. You cannot go on saying that the problems are caused due to initial phase launch for so long. Such excuses can be accepted for a week or so," Sarma told IANS.
"We also need to look into what kind of investments these people are making," Sarma said and added that the telecom watchdog was looking into the matter and would come out with a quality check very soon.
Mahesh Uppal, a telecom analyst and director of consultancy ComFirst India, maintains the networks are having problems because they were moving customers from 2G to 3G.
"Even I am having problems with the 3G network. I feel that this is because the networks are in a transition phase. Therefore some hiccups are probably expected. These companies are moving into 3G in an incremental way," Uppal told IANS.
On the other hand the telecom operators say that every new technology takes time to find its feet and so it is with 3G.
"You have to realise integrating new technology with an older one takes time -- 3G is like going back to square one. Operators almost have to build an entire network," said Rajan Matthews, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).
"The operators will take almost 6-9 months to straighten out things."
Though the telecom watchdog does not have a record on the specific number of customers who have switched from 2G to 3G so far, some telecom operators have revealed their data individually.
While the dominant player Airtel currently has over two million 3G subscribers, Idea Cellular has one million across the country. On the whole, there are 811 million mobile phone subscribers in the country.

Jaideep Ghosh, director, KPMG advisory services, too, agrees with operators. Since the technology was new to India and companies were still in the implementation phase, some technical glitches were bound to come up, he said.

"Some operators launched it six months back and some are still in the process across all the circles. So it will be too early to a conclude that the services are good or bad," Ghosh told IANS. "We should wait till all operators launch full-fledged services."

A few operators also blame scarcity of spectrum to be a hitch for the service providers not being able to perform efficiently.

"The larger problem is not 2G or 3G but spectrum allocation. If you do not have enough spectrum, how would you be able to provide better services?" queried a senior official with a leading telecom operator.

Tata DoCoMo was the first private player to launch the 3G services in the country -- in November 2010. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular are among the other operators who have launched their 3G services across the country.

Third generation telephony services are supposed to allow faster connectivity with some new applications such as Internet TV, video-on-demand, audio-video calls and high-speed data exchange.source

Aircel launches 3G services; soon to roll out in 11 circles

Aircel will invest nearly Rs 23,000 crore in 3G and 2G operations in the next 3-4 years. This will take the company's cumulative investment in India by then to around Rs 45,000 crore or $10 billion, according to the company's Chief Operating Officer, Mr Gurdeep Singh.

Launching Aircel's 3G services, Mr Singh said the youth comprise over 50 per cent of the country's population and are among active Internet users and also avid users of Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites. This service will address the high speed digital needs of such consumers with the power of the Internet creating new opportunities in sectors such as education, entertainment and employment.

After Chennai, Aircel will roll out the 3G services in 11 telecom circles, excluding Punjab and West Bengal, in the next one week. It will cover all of its 13 circles with 3G network by mid-March, he said.

Aircel, a part of Malaysia's Maxis Communications, has bagged 3G spectrum for 13 telecom circles. Mr Singh said the ‘value added service' (VAS) and ‘data' will drive the growth of 3G in the country. At present, revenue from VAS and data is only 10 per cent in India, while in other developed countries it is nearly 40 per cent.

The company has tied up with Samsung, BlackBerry, Dell and Nokia for ‘smart' mobile devices with 3G compatibility. The base rate will be 3 paise per 10KB. At an inclusive price of Rs 132, Rs 252, Rs 502 and Rs 802, consumers can have 75 MB, 150 MB, 350 MB and 1024 MB data, respectively, a month with in-built voice and SMS, he said.

Mr Singh said in the next five years nearly 35 per cent of Aircel's customers would be using 3G services. Aircel has a subscriber base of around 50 million subscribers.source

Mobile Call Charges Likely To Rise

he Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), on Wednesday, has recommended a six-fold jump in 2G spectrum cost for operators. This is after the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) findings that the exchequer has lost an estimated amount of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore in 2008 by selling 2G licenses bundled with start-up spectrum at Rs. 1,658 crore to pan-India operators.

The operators are currently paying Rs. 1,658 crore for the contracted 6.2 MHz spectrum for pan-India license but TRAI has come out with a new rate of Rs. 10,972.45 crore. Also, each MHz of additional spectrum held by operators should cost a one-time charge of Rs. 4,571.87 crore (all India). However, this would vary from circle to circle and operators would be required to pay only for those circles, where they hold extra spectrum. TRAI has also recommended that the suggested prices should be made effective from April 1, 2010.

This would mean that our mobile bills are going to multiply in the coming days. Imagine the call rates being Rs. 5 or Rs. 6 per minute, for local calls. That would be “disastrous”, as the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the general body for GSM service providers, says.

“This would mean that my mobile charges are going to triple or even more. My father lives abroad and if the call charges are going to be hiked, all I can do is reduce my dependency on mobile phones and make use of cheaper internet based services like Skype or GTalk,” says Arun Shajan, Quality Controller, Hilton Hyundai, Trivandrum.

“Also, in the long run, this is going to cause heavy loss for the government as more and more people would turn to the aforementioned services,” he adds.
Major telecom operators like Bharti and Vodafone have raised their concern over the new recommendations by TRAI, terming them as “flawed, illogical and discriminatory” against the old operators. The COAI also commented that it is like “changing the goal post in the middle of the game.”

However, the telecom operators in Trivandrum, when contacted chose not to comment on this. “I’m not aware of any such issues and as such I have not been intimated about any call charge hikes,” says Jyothi Shankar, XX, BSNL, Trivandrum.

Telecom minister Kapil Sibal also criticised the CAG for the methodology used to arrive at the presumptive figures.  source

Analysts are not recommending Airtel, Idea and Reliance.

Despite a sharp fall in telecom share prices, analysts are not recommending Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications to investors. Following the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) recommendation of a steep hike in 2G spectrum pricing, wherein telecom companies have to shell out additional Rs 16000 crore to the government, the telecom stock prices took a severe beating. The telecom stocks were one of the biggest losers on Thursday's trade.

According to analysts, no fresh buying is recommended at the current level. With an estimated price earning ratio (PE ratio) of 26.1x in FY11, Idea is recommended for sell. For Bharti Airtel, investors can hold on with an estimated PE of 20.4x, as suggested by Emkay Share.

“Telecom companies would not agree to the re-pricing proposal by TRAI. The proposal does not seem reasonable. Unless there is clarity on the re-pricing issue, no fresh entry is recommended. Market has already factored in the re-pricing issue. However, there could be further down falls based on the final outcome,” said an analyst on condition of anonymity.

TRAI has sent a final recommendation for re-pricing of 2G spectrum. This was a further intimation to recommendations made in May 2010 for re-pricing of spectrum above 6.2Mhz. Re-pricing is recommended for the remaining period (7 years) of spectrum at the price discovered in auction of 3G spectrum.

If implemented then it would erode profitability of Bharti and Idea with yearly outgo of Rs 580 crore and Rs 230 crore, respectively for 7 years. Cost for Reliance Communication is expected to remain miniscule at Rs 2 crore, according the Emkay research note.

Shares of Bharti and Idea ended at Rs 322.80, down 2.81%, Rs 65, down 1.89% respectively. RCom, however, was at Rs 96.25, up 1.69% at the close of day’s trading on NSE. The stock prices Bharti Airtel, RCom and Idea have corrected 15% on an average in last one month.source

How 3G will be of use to common man

You can understand 3g or be confused by it but the fact remains that you just cannot ignore it. The layman's world has grown too fast. Every day technical jargon keeps getting dumped into our routine lives and we are not sure if we really have gotten the hang of it all. Yet, the progress is palpable. It is there all around us and we embrace it and move on, sometimes with almost zero comprehension. we have been hearing the words 2G, 3G and even 4G, now that we all know about iPhones. So what are these Gs? What do they stand for and what exactly do they do? How does it reach the layman and of what use is it? Well, dear reader, that is exactly what this post will try to lend clarity on.

So for the most elementary question, What do the Gs stand for? Well, G means Generation. The world of telecom administrators have named the connections available as First, Second and Third Generations. An obvious illation here would be that each progressing generation is better equipped to connect the world than the previous one. Now when the mobile phones first came into existence 1G networks were used to transmit these signals. The signals used in 1G were analog. Meaning they were prone to many distortions, interference, cross calls im-practical in a few areas and lots of losses. This also meant the handsets had to bigger in size to facilitate proper usage. Then came 2G, where in the major difference/*improvement from 1G was, these signals were digital. The transmitted messages were coded digitally and this eventually improved all the disadvantages of the 1G connection.

Presently we are in the midst of a revolution(Late in India). The 3G standards have come into the nation and along it brings a fresh crisp and faster life. 3G technology enables faster internet access speed, owing to the fact that the channel available for internet access is larger than the one available in 2G. In 3G one can expect speed close to around 200 Kbit/s and more. Refer the Wiki page : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G. Now the 2G networks suffered due to lack of bandwidth and so it couldn't offer many services. But now that the 3G is here it offers,, by virtue of its bandwidth availability a host of mouth watering features like :

• Mobile TV – a provider redirects a TV channel directly to the subscriber's phone where it can be watched.
• Video on demand – a provider sends a movie to the subscriber's phone.
• Video conferencing – subscribers can see as well as talk to each other.
• Tele-medicine – a medical provider monitors or provides advice to the potentially isolated subscriber.
• Location-based services – a provider sends localized weather or traffic conditions to the phone, or the phone allows the subscriber to find nearby businesses or friends.
So keeping away all technical terms and speaking strictly as a normal common man, 3G stands for the following :
1. Faster speed for internet 2. More features like TV and media streaming 3. Video calling facility (needs more bandwidth hence not available in 2G ) 4. More security over 2G 5. Truly, the power of the world will come into the palm of our hands... So long then dear readers, hope this post did, if not completely at least partly, shed some clarity on the happening 3G phenomenon. Cheers source

Violations, Timeline in 2G Spectrum Scam

I am just outlining the violations/timeline of the 2G Spectrum Scam and other related telecom scandals. This is just a synopsis of the biggest scam the country witnessed.
# A Raja becomes Union Minister for Environment and Forests in May 2004 and shifts to Ministry of Communications and IT on May 16, 2007. Raja’s friendly real estate companies want to become telecom operators and he informs his decision to Telecom Secretary DS Mathur for granting new licenses and spectrum to new players. But Mathur objects and argues for transparent auction and competitive pricing (as recommended by TRAI from 2003 onwards). Raja wants to grant licenses as per First-Come-First-Serve method (in a peculiar way – who first pays license fee and not who first applied) and old pricing fixed in 2001. In 2001, there were only four million mobile subscribers and it crossed 350 million in mid 2007. So Manju Madhvan, Member (Finance) of DoT, Finance Ministry also pointed out new competitive prices. But all ignored by Raja and he sent the file to Law Ministry for opinion and started procedures.
# On September 24, 2007 DoT issues a press release (released in the late evening and appeared in next day newspapers), citing the last date of application (cut-off date) fixing to October 1, 2007.
#Without Cabinet approval Raja allots Dual Policy or Cross Technology to Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices and Shyam Telecom in October 2007 at a rate fixed in 2001. This technology allows CDMA operators to change to much wanted GSM Technology. CDMA operators were in bad shape and Raja’s decision became a boon to them. Here the corruption part is on allowing the much wanted GSM license at a six year old price. This move is Raja’s first major corruption in Telecom, which gave him courage to go ahead with 2G Spectrum allocation to new companies.
# On Nov 1, 2007, the Law Minister HR Bhardwaj rejects Raja’s plan and directs to constitute an Empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) to form transparent procedures for 2G Spectrum allocation and new licenses.
# Next day on Nov 2, 2007, by 8pm Raja wrote a letter to Prime Minister, objecting on Bhardwaj’s direction. “Law Ministry is out of context,” wrote Raja. This letter was delivered to PM’s residence
# Within an hour (9pm), same day (Nov 2, 2007) – might be alerted by Bhardwaj- PM wrote to Raja to stop all procedures and directs him to get his concurrence in all future actions. This letter was delivered to Raja’s residence. Citing several wrong practices in the past, PM directs Raja to adopt transparent method by auction and new pricing.
# In the mid night, Raja gave an evasive rely to PM, hushing up the directions for auction, competitive pricing. This letter dated Nov 2, 2007 was also delivered to PM’s residence
# A very senior Law Officer (doing all unlawful activities and advisor to all illegal activities) was present in Raja’s residence on Nov 2, 2007 from 7pm to 11:30pm. He drafted all the two letters to Prime Minister by Raja. He was elevated in UPA-2 due to his nexus with all unholy elements in politics and corporate world. How a Law officer can advise against Law Minister’s direction? Rule 8(1)(e) of Law Officers (Conditions of Service) Rules 1972 says : “A Law Officer ( includes AG/SG/ASG or any other law officer) shall not advise any Ministry or Department of Government of India or any statutory organization or any PSU unless the proposal or a reference in this regard is received through Ministry of Law and Justice, Department of Legal Affairs.
# Finance Secretary Mr. D. Subba Rao wrote to Telecom Secretary Mr. DS Mathur on November 22, 2007 – objecting the pricing policy of 2G Spectrum and arguing for auction. In the letter the Finance Secretary objected the dual policy (cross technology) implemented (2\Oct 2007) to help CDMA operators like Reliance and TATA to more revenue earning GSM technology at a cheap rate fixed in 2001, without cabinet approval.
# Regarding this controversial allotment of dual policy (This was Raja’s first big corruption in Telecom Ministry), in the November 2, 2007 late night letter PM said to Raja : “I came thorough the media on the allotment of dual policy or cross technology)
The CAG report says around Rs.36,000 crore lost over this allotment of dual policy which benefited mainly Reliance and TATA. There is a separate headline : “undue influence to Reliance” in the CAG report which figures the total loss to Rs.1.76 Lakh crores, including the loss on the dual technology.
# Strong resistance by Telecom Secretary DS Mathur and Manju Madhavan prevents Raja from moving ahead. For suggesting series of steps for auction, Raja snubs Manju Madhvan, in an internal note dated Dec 4, 2007 who took VRS soon.(she applied well earlier).
# After 50 days, on Dec 26, 2007, Raja wrote a letter to PM, saying that he was “further enlightened” by Pranab Mukherjee (then External Affairs Minister) and G Vahanvati (then Solicitor General) to go ahead with “pre-emptive and pro-active” decision to allot 2G Spectrum and new licenses. In these letters also Raja argues for reversing the cut-off date o limit the players. PM did not reply, but simply gave a routine acknowledgement on Jan 3, 2008.
# On Dec 31, 2007, DS Mathur retires. Raja brings his trusted man Siddarth Behura as new Telecom Secretary, who worked as an Addl. Secretary with him Ministry of Environment and Forests. Within 10 days (Jan 10, 2008) at 2:45pm DoT uploads a press release saying that cut-off date was reversed from October 1, 2007 to September 25, 2007. The press release asked the new players to remit fee (huge money ranging from Rs.1500 cr- Rs.1600 cr) between 3:30pm -4:30pm on same day. It is a mystery that how Nine new companies made and remitted huge fee by demand draft within 45 minutes.
#Here is the conspiracy angle. All the nine company owners/brokers had a meeting with Raja on Jan 9, 2008 at his residence. All were informed by Minister 24 hours before the issue of press release. The cut-off date was reversed to September 25, 2007, because of Raja’s favorite company Unitech applied on Sept 24. Another favourite company Shyam Telelink also applied on Sept 24.
# On Jan 10, 2008, the CEOs Swan and Unitech (most favoured companies of Raja) sit at Private Secretary RK Chandolia’s cabin in Sanchar Bhavan. DDG Access Service (AK Srivastava) directs officials to go Chandolia’s cabin at 3pm. Chandolia asks official o collect application and demand draft from CEOs and directs to give No : 1 status to Swan and No : 2 status to Unitech. Then only counter was opened at eighth floor of Sanachar Bhavan to receive application/ fee from other seven companies. There was a mad rush to become first in the queue and physical fight taken place between rivals. Bouncers were brought. CEOs quarreled with each other while some telecom officers were manhandled.. Though police arrived, no case was registered by instruction of Chandolia.
#TRAI Chairman Mr. Nripendra Misra’s letter to Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura on January 14, 2008 – objecting the policy, reversal of cut-off date and manipulating his recommendations. Later in the media Misra described DoT had “cherry picked” his recommendations.
#As per the Sec 11(1)(a)(ii) and Sec 11(1)(d) of the TRAI Act, DoT is mandated to get the recommendation of TRAI, if they issue license to new operators. But Raja never sought recommendation of TRAI when he allotted license to new operators like Swan Telecom – changed name to Etisalat DB Telecom, Unitech group companies changed name to Uninor, Loop Telecom (license was granted in the name of Shipping Stop Dotcom India Pvt Ltd!!!!!), Datacom – changed name to Videocon, STel and Allainz Infra (merged/amalgamated with Etisalat later with their license in 2 circles…any smell of corruption or conspiracy?. Let CBI or ED investigate)
#DoT allots spectrum/licenses (including additional spectrum to existing players to settle anger) on March/April 2008. All files were signed by Raja. Unitech applied licenses in different names – Unitech Infrastructure, Unitech Builders and Estates, Aska Projects, Nahan Properties, Hudson Properties, Volga Properties, Adonis Projects and Azare Properties. Later Unitech Group forms eight companies – Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu), Unitech Wireless (North), Unitech Wireless (South), Unitech Wireless (Kolkata), Unitech Wireless (Delhi), Unitech Wireless (East), Unitech Wireless (Mumbai), Unitech Wireless (West).
#Dubious order was issued by Siddhart Behura on April 22, 2008 for facilitating merger (leaving the word acquisition). This helped Unitech to merge all their licenses and helped all to waive the mandatory three year lock-in-period in selling of their shares.
# On Sept 13, 2008, Raja forces BSNL CMD Kuldip Goyal to enter into a un-precedented MoU with Swan, known as Intra-Circle Roaming Agreement. This MoU will help Swan to use all infrastructure (Towers, optical network etc) of BSNL. This MoU was executed just a week before, Swan’s Rs.4500 Cr deal (sale of 45 per cent shares) with Etisalat. Swan gives unsolicited application to BSNL. The BSNL management committee demands 52 paise/call from Swan. But this clause was absent in the MoU. Raja also transfers senior officials in WPC (Joint Wireless Adviser RJS Kushwaha and Deputy Wireless Adviser D Jha) for objecting Swan’s proposals to BSNL and DoT.
# In Sept/October 2008 – Swan offloads 45 per cent shares to UAE based Etisalat for Rs.4500 Cr. (Swan got license for Rs.1530Cr). Etisalat invested Swan through its Mauritius unit. Unitech offloads 60 per cent of shares to Norway based Telenor for Rs.6200Cr. (Unitech got license for Rs.1621 cr). Telenor invested through its South-Asia division. Telenor is a major operator in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
# On Nov 4 2008, Swan informs DoT that – it allotted Rs.380Cr worth shares (9.9%) to a Chennai based newly floated company Genex Exim. This is believed to the kick back from Swan to Raja. Genex was incorporated on September 17, 2008, with two directors — Mohammed Hassan (58) and Ahamed Shakir (41). The company was represented by Ahmed Syed Salahuddin (32) on the board of Swan. The three belong to Kilukarai, a small coastal village in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu link now gets strengthened. Ahmed Syed Salahuddin is the younger son of Syed Mohammed Salahuddin, an NRI business tycoon heading the Dubai-based real estate conglomerate, ETA Ascon Star Group. This was part of the letter to DoT informing the Rs.4500 crore deal with Etisalat.
# ETA Group had several real estate projects cleared (on in Bangalore) during Raja’s stint in Environment Ministry. More over the ETA owner Syed Mohammed Salahuddin is having four decade long association with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi. Most of the Fly Overs, new Secretariat complex were built by this man, who was also a distributor of Karunanidhi’s films. Star Health Insurance, owned by this man is running the state government’s group health insurance scheme. Sayed Salahuddin was also named in Justice Sarkaria Commission report in 1976. The Commission was instituted by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, after dismissing Karunanidhi for gross corruption.
# On May 29, 2009 (48 hours after Raja sworn in again as Telecom Minister), Delhi High Court (Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Valmiki Mehta) on hearing the PIL against First-Come-First-Serve (FCFS) policy observed: “It is like selling cinema tickets. We find it very strange that public exchequer and valuable resources have been involved and misused in this way. We are completely astounded.”. The Delhi High Court in 1994 termed the FCFS policy as a barbarian and said not a suitable one to a democratic government]
# July 1, 2009 – Justice GS Sistani of Delhi High Court quashed the DoT’s decision to reverse the cut-off date. The case was filed by STel. On Nov 24, 2009 – Delhi HC Chief Justice upheld the Single Bench verdict and rejected the appeal of DoT. Shockingly in these two courts DoT filed an affidavit that Raja got Prime Minister’s concurrence. How Law Ministry and Attorney General GE Vahanvati vetted such an affidavit? The affidavit filed by Telecom Department (mentioned in the Para No : 5 of the verdict given by Delhi HC Chief Justice) only says Raja’s letter to PM on Nov 2, 2007 seeking his consent for reversing the cut off date (last date of application). But the Telecom Department, Minister Raja and the Attorney General Vahanvati cleverly and criminally hushed up PM’s objections and directions to Raja on the same date.
This wrong affidavit was not included in the SLP in the Supreme Court, when The Pioneer reported on misquoting PM in the Delhi High.
# DoT approaches Supreme Court through SLP to quash the HC verdicts. Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy impleads into the case. Sensing danger, Raja wanted the STel to withdraw from the case. On March 5, 2010, Friday evening after office hours, DoT issues an order asking STel to close its operation in three states, citing security reasons. There was no show cause was issued to STel and later Home Ministry revealed that they never raised any sort of security concern. Arm twisted STel surrendered before Raja on March 8, 2010 on Monday and declared that they have no troubles with DoT policy. Vahanvati produced STel’s surrender letter to Supreme Court, which was rejected and directed the company to file an affidavit. Due to Subramanian Swamy’s presence, Raja’s design failed and court said that thy will not interfere into the HC order declaring the change of cut off date as illegal.
# It must be remembered that STel offered to DoT and later to Prime Minister Rs.17,752 crore (mentioned in the Para No : 11 of the verdict of Delhi HC Chief Justice) for pan-Indian license/spectrum. But they got only three circles, due to change of cut-off date. Raja sold out Pan Indian license/spectrum for just Rs.1651 crore, the value fixed in 2001. The figure/rate quoted by STel in letters to DoT, Minister Raja and PM exposes the actual rates of 2G Spectrum in 2007-08 and huge loss to exchequer by Raja’s fraudulent action. This huge offer of STel became one of the basic factor for CAG in assessing the loss happened in 2G Spectrum allocation, including Dual Policy to Reliance and Tata
The figure Rs.17,752 crore offered by STel, mentioned the judgments is typographical error. The actual figure is Rs.13,752 according to CAG, after verifying the DoT papers.
#On October 14, 2009, Central Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha orders to CBI to probe the spectrum scam under Sec 120B of IPC (criminal conspiracy) and Sec 13d of Prevention of Corruption Act. CBI registers FIR on October 21, 2009. The FIR said the loss was Rs.23,000 crore. Later Enforcement Directorate also registers cases. Nothing happened till the Supreme Court intervened in September 2010 on the PIL filed by Prashant Bhushan, leading to the Supreme Court monitoring of the investigation. How can CBI and ED act, when Raja was kept on power till November 2010?
# By September 2010, the cases filed in Supreme Court by Subramanian Swamy and Prashant Bhushan started in the Bench of Justice GS Sighvi and AK Ganguly. Thankfully the mindset of the courts changed after SH Kapadia became the Chief Justice of India Raja finally submits resignation on November 14, 2010.
# The CAG found that out of the 122 licenses, 85 licenses are illegal according to the DoT guidelines itself, amounting to immediate cancellation at any point of time.
CAG found that the licenses given to Swan (13), Unitech(22), Loop(21), Datacom(21) STel(6) and Allianz Infra (2) are totally illegal according to DoT guidelines itself, apart from violations in Companies Act. The CAG tabled the report in Parliament on November 16, 2010 – finding a presumptive loss up to Rs.1.76 lak crore due to the illegal allotment of 2G spectrum including Dual Policy.source