Indian court grabs back 122 GSM licences from operators India's Supreme Court has ruled that the 2G licences awarded in 2008 were not fairly distributed, and has snatched 122 of them back from the operators who were using them. The court has decided the first-come-first-served approach adopted by then-telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja was "totally arbitrary and unconstitutional", …
This is all very good but the companies effected will only knock on the effect to customer prices.
Coruption comes in many forms, but rest assured the customer always pays for it and in this case probably twice. Though its a bold brave and fair move they are doing and in that it is probably the right thing to do. Now perhaps introduce some price cap's and other customer protection and politicaly this chap will go far.
"Even as the spectrum was awarded, back in 2008, politicians were accused of stitching up the public purse by failing to auction the bands."
Someone hasn't quite understood that the money that goes into the public purse doesn't appear magically out of nowhere. It has to be paid back to the shareholders eventually. From the telecom service fees. So ultimately the public purse is being filled by punters.
There are a couple of points that have had some airtime in India but are generally being glossed over:
The procedure used in 2008 was the same as used previously (when the *big* players got in.)
Aside from any alleged corruption, the method used has enabled very rapid rollout of cellphone use in India at affordable prices (some of the cheapest in the world). Auction prices would undoubtedly have been vastly higher, providing more revenue to the Govt (*not* to the 'common man' as is being touted). In fact the common man *has* benefited by way of cheap calls.
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