The NDA government had rushed through with the now controversial ''first come first serve' policy for issuing mobile telephony licenses, a move that benefited Tata Teleservices and Bharti Cellular, JPC Chairman P C Chacko indicated today.

Chacko, briefing reporters after recording of evidence of former Telecom Secretary Vinod Vaish, said detailed guidelines were also not issued with regard to the 'first come first serve' (FCFS) policy which was not even notified to the public "so that only those interested would apply".

"The Committee pointed out that while processing the Letter of Intent for Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL), Director, Value Added Services (in the Department of Telecom) in a note recorded that spectrum to be alloted subject to availability," he said.

"This in effect would imply that an applicant who comes first will be allotted the license first. So, it will result in grant of license on first come first serve basis," Chacko said.

He said the Director (VAS) put up this note on November 21, 2003 to Vaish who concurred the next day. The then Telecom Minister Arun Shourie approved it the same day.

Chacko said the Committee wanted to know why the proposal was not examined in detail and recommendations of TRAI were not taken into consideration before approval by the minister.

He said Committee also took serious note that detailed guidelines for the FCFS were not issued for checking future misuse and that the policy was not notified to the public.

When asked about this, Vaish told the Committee that there were not many takers and hence a notification was not issued.

Vaish said those interested were aware of the changes.

Chacko said the entry fee for Unified Access Service licensees were fixed following a telephonic conversation between Vaish and the then TRAI Chairman Pradip Baijal.

He said the TRAI chairman took the decision in his individual capacity to fix the entry fee for UASL equal to the entry fee paid by the fourth cellular operator in a particular telecom circle.

It was also decided that in case there was no fourth operator, the entry fee would be based on the charges fixed by the government for basic service operators, Chacko said.

When asked about the need for such urgency, Vaish told the JPC that it was done so as there were petitions before the Supreme Court for a stay on grant of UASL.

Chacko said TRAI recommendations on introducing additional players in mobile telcom sector through multi-stage bidding proccess was not followed.

Quizzed on this aspect, Vaish told the JPC that the TRAI recommendations had to be seen harmoniously with the other suggestions made by the telecom regulator.

Vaish said that the TRAI recommendations on multi-stage bidding were made for the then existing licensing regime and not for UASL.

"Vaish's replies were not convincing for the committee," Chacko said.

On the two per cent reduction of license fee suggested by Shourie and concurred to by the then Finance Minister, Vaish told the JPC that the step was necessary to protect the industry and speeding up growth.