Despite their differences on the issue of participation in 2G auction There seems to a consensus merging among the telcom operators that the government should auction all the mount of spectrum available. This includes the spectrum available after the cancellation of the spectrum licences following the Supreme Court’s February 2 verdict cancelling all the 122 spectrum licences as well as the one to be vacated by the defence forces.

In its response to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Bharti Airtel said that in its submission said that there is no reason to reserve spectrum when there is sufficient demand in the market and operators are ready to pay the market determined price.

“Artificial scarcity of the spectrum will lead to inflated value of spectrum, which would ultimately be passed onto the customers”, it said.

Tata Teleservices said that for any scarce resource, the primary economic objective of the Government should be to maximize the net benefits to the society that can be generated from that resource by ensuring an efficient distribution of resources.

“No purpose will be served by keeping such a resource idle. The unused spectrum brings no benefit to society, consumers or Government,” it said.

On the auction of airtel said that there is no linkage between the auction of 700 Mhz band and any kind of refarming of spectrum in 800/900 Mhz band. We therefore recommend that auction of 700 Mhz spectrum band should be done as soon as possible and preferrably along with auction of 2G spectrum.

“Auction of spectrum in 1800 Mhz band for 2G services should be framed up first and foremost..We have proposed separate consultation should be held for these (700/800/900 Mhz) bands," said Infotel Broadband Service (IBSL).

Rcom said that any action contemplated for 700 Mhz should be deferred till global market matures with available devices and infrastructure in 2015.  

But the differences have emerged on the issue of the participation in the 2G spectrum auction following the cancellation of 122 spectrum licences. While the new operators like Uninor, SSTL, Videocon, S Tel and Etisalat DB feel that only the new operators should be allowed to participate in the bid, the existing players are of the view that the auction should be open to both old and the new operators.  

Videocon said that participation in this phase (first) should be restricted to new entrants which would include the quashed licence holders as well as any new entrant who is not ineligible by virtue of ownership by an existing licencee.

While favoring a level playing field Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL) said that new operators need to be given pre-emptory right of participation in the fresh auction.

Vodafone said that existing operators must be given fair chance to deploy scale network of a comparable quality to international networks.

“This means that existing operators should be given a fair opportunity to acquire additional 1800 Mhz spectrum”, it said in response to the consultation paper issued by TRAI.