BW Communities

No Extension For Trai's Sarma

Anup Jayaram Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[It had been a point of debate for the last few weeks. Today, the suspense ended when an extension was denied to current Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman, JS Sarma. Till date no Trai chairman has been given an extension. To do that would have meant amending the Trai Act. Till quite recently it was believed that Sarma would get an extension for anything between two to six months since he had just announced the reserve price for the auction of spectrum. But, the furore over the recommendations on spectrum pricing has apparently been so great that the government decided not to extend his term. As things stand, Sarma, who took over as chairman on 14 May 2009, will now sign off on Friday 11 May. There are two prominent names doing the rounds as possible candidates to replace Sarma as Trai chairman. This includes current commerce secretary Rahul Khullar and former secretary (defence finance) Indu Liberhan. The name is expected to be announced on Friday. Ever since the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) came up with its recommendations on spectrum pricing, the industry has gone into battle mode. CEOs of four GSM-based mobile telecom service companies including Sunil Mittal, CMD of Bharti Airtel; Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Idea Cellular; Vittorio Colao, CEO, Vodafone; and Jon Fredrik Baksaas, CEO, Telenor group, met five ministers of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom in one day.   Trai had suggested that spectrum in the 1800 MHz band be auctioned at a base price of Rs 3,622 crore/MHz. Besides, while the Supreme Court cancelled eight licences, Trai has put up only 5 MHz of the 1800 MHz band spectrum in each circle for bidding initially. It plans to have another auction later based on the discovered price in the first auction. J.S. Sarma, had said then: "During this year itself, they would be in a position to have another auction of 1800 MHz band. So, new operators can come in there too." That remains to be seen as Trai has talked of only one auction. The moot point is that there is an average of 26 MHz of spectrum in each of the 22 circles across the country in the 1800 MHz band.  Telecom operators argue that by creating an artificial scarcity of spectrum, it would mean that at best only one new operator would be able to get spectrum in a circle.  Meanwhile, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, more than a year after he was arrested for his alleged involvement in improper allotment of telecom license and bandwidth in 2008. Post that, then communications minister Andimuthu Raja moved a bail application in a special CBI court. He has sought bail on grounds of parity. His bail plea will be heard on Friday.