Following the very poor response, financially and
technically, all the blame go to TRAI who recommended Rs 18,000 cr for pan
India spectrum. The spectrum auction for 1800MHz later priced for Rs 14000 cr
for pan India 5MHz spectrum which is too high for operators who had shelled out
money for 3G and 4G spectrum and in high debt. Operators’ bodies – COAI and
AUSPI repeatedly told that this price will replicate in negative growth of the
sector but regulatory bodies TRAI and DoT did not took them in ears.
The tepid response tells that CAG did miscalculation of Rs
1.76 lakh cr loss on 2008 spectrum sale. They messed up because they took 3G
auction as basic, and 3G auction went fierece as operators thought 3G growth
story would be same great as 2G were.
