DoT may move SC for more time to complete auction process

Even as the government maintains a hands-off stand over the cancellation of 122 licences issued during the tenure of disgraced telecom mininister  A Raja, the DoT has made it clear to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and union ministers concerned that it cannot meet the four-month deadline set by the Supreme Court for the resale of the 122 telecom licences cancelled by the apex court.

In a presentation before the prime minister and senior cabinet ministers such as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P Chidambaram and law minister Salman Khurshid earlier this month, DoT said finalising the new bidding process would take over 13 months.

The telecom department officials pointed out that finalising the auction process for 3G spectrum sale had taken almost two years; and it was too much to ask for the plans for 2G auctioning to be finalised in 400 days.

The DoT is likely to ask the Supreme Court to extend the deadline for finishing the auction process, as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is slated to issue its recommendations on the 2G auctions in the next 60 days.

The DoT has reportedly said it will require 95 days to study the TRAI proposals, fix a reserve price for bandwidth in consultation with the cabinet, and get approvals from the group of ministers looking into spectrum-related issues.

After this, DoT has estimated that it will take another 245 days to complete the auction process.

The DoT presentation adds that the government must take a call on the quantum of spectrum to be sold, the size of the blocks to go under the hammer, and the entities that can participate in the bidding.