Spectrum mess: DoT, TRAI file contradictory affidavits

The tragic-comic spectacle of two arms of the government working at cross-purposes is becoming increasingly common. This time it is over the vexed 2G spectrum issue - while the government agrees with the private companies' view that delay in rolling out services for spectrum network to consumers for over two years is a ''common experience all over the world'', an affidavit filed on Wednesday by its own regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), thinks otherwise.

The union government, through the department of telecommunications (DoT), and TRAI have filed separate affidavits in the Supreme Court on the issue. While TRAI wants the licences of companies who failed to roll out services on time to be cancelled, the government feels a fine is enough.

The DoT's affidavit, settled by attorney general G E Vahanvati, quotes the companies' argument that such delay is a common phenomenon and ''experience all over the world shows roll-out may get delayed''. It tells the court that though the delayed roll-out of the network was a ''clear infraction'', a monetary penalty would suffice.

It adds that cancellation of the private companies' licences only on account of delayed roll-out would not be in the public interest.

On the other hand, TRAI's 19-page affidavit says a monetary penalty is not enough. ''As per the unified access service (UAS) licence agreement, in the case the roll-out obligation is not met within two years from the date of allocation of spectrum/frequency, the question of terminating the licence would arise,'' it says, adding that the spectrum allocation started in January 2008.

Again, unlike the centre, the TRAI insists that roll-out of the network within the specified period is the very ''essence'' of spectrum contracts with private entities.

The TRAI affidavit also details a massive exercise it undertook on 10 June 2009 to check on service providers who were awarded licences from December 2006, only to find in 2010 that 69 licences out of a total 130 had not fulfilled the mandatory roll-out obligations. The affidavit states that it had written to the DoT recommending ''immediate necessary action'' against the defaulting companies.