Contradicting Telecom Minister A Raja’s recent public statements, senior telecom department (DoT) officials have supported auctions as the most transparent way of distributing 2G spectrum.

According to official documents available with TOI , the DoT top brass has outlined three ways that spectrum can be allocated, of which two argue a case for auctions. The minister has been cautioned that the auction route is the only one that can withstand any legal scrutiny at a later date.

This is the outcome of a meeting of DoT officials with Raja on 18 October. The officials present included secretary-DoT, D S Mathur, member-services, member-technology, legal advisor-telecom, joint secretary-telecom and DDG-access services.

TOI was the first to report the DoT’s growing discomfort in supporting the first-come-first-served criteria and preference for open bidding on October 5. The DoT has been put in a spot over the methodology for allocation of spectrum following a deluge of 575 UASL applications from 46 companies in 22 service areas.

The department has also been dragged to court by the COAI over its decision of October 19 allowing CDMA players to access GSM spectrum.

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Posted: 10|27|07 at 4:35 pm. Filed under: Auction News.