Vodafone, which championed allotting spectrum through auction when its competitors were issued spectrum by former communications minister A. Raja, wants it should be allotted airwaves without bidding. The company wants its licences to be renewed without going through auction process. Its licences for Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata would expire in 2014.
 
As per the New telecom Policy (NTP 2012), the spectrum has to be issued at a market price and through auction. Vodafone wants that the government should extend the licences without going through the auction process.
 
The Supreme Court, in its Presidential order, had said that all the natural resources (that are to be used for commercial purposes) should be allotted through auction.
 
Vodafone wants that its licences should be extended through mutual agreement. “Vodafone India upholds “extension of license should be on mutually agreed terms”, it said in a statement expressing its expressing  concern regarding the January  22nd, 2013   guidelines for auction and allotment of spectrum, in 1800/900/800 MHZ bands.
 
Vodafone has termed the entire auction guideline as unfair, illegal, discriminatory and contrary to terms of license, and has requested the government to withdraw the guidelines.
 
In alter to the Department of Communications (DoT) Vodafone that 900MHZ spectrum for such, proposed auctions includes the “Spectrum which is presently being used by VIL for the Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata circles.
 
“Since the same spectrum is already being used expeditiously and extensively in its networks, it cannot be put out for auction, in the manner stated in the guidelines, which implies forcible withdrawal of spectrum from the existing service providers”, it said.
 
It said that guidelines have arbitrarily fixed reserve price for 900 MHz and 1800 MHz at levels exorbitantly higher than international benchmarks. In a letter sent on 17th September 2012, VIl had quoted a decision by UK telecom regulator OFCOM, which   had proposed nil spectrum charges for first 20 years for 4G services in UK. ( copy of the 13th September, 2012 letter attached, reference page 4)
 
 “The guidelines auction of 900MHz was in contravention of license which provided for extension on terms that are to be mutually agreed”, said TV Ramachandran, Resident Director.
 
He pointed out that Vodafone had already applied for extension of license in the service areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and the request was pending with the DoT.  He called upon DoT to provide suitable terms for extension for discussion and mutual agreement.
 
Vodafone also said that  the current  guidelines are contrary to DoT’s earlier decision about validity of existing UAS & CMTS and basic service licenses to be extended for another 10 years at one time, as per the provisions of the extant licensing regime. It points out that these guidelines are discriminatory in nature, as they fix the reserve price of 900Mhz at three times the price of 800Mhz, while TRAI had recommended both these bands to be treated at par . Fixing reserve price of 800 MHZ  band  at comparatively low levels benefits a certain set of telecom operators
 
The letter highlights that the entire auction guideline is spreading wrong signals about liberalisation of spectrum. VIL reiterates “guidelines wrongly continue to announce that spectrum presently held is not liberalized, when spectrum has already been liberalized and has been so since 1999.”
  
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