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NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has slammed the ‘adhoc arrangement’ by the department of telecommunications (DoT) for opening application windows for three-six months for the allotment of spectrum. It said this caused uncertainties of availability of the critical resource among government users, delayed spectrum assignments and led to denial of spectrum in some cases.
After the Supreme Court judgement of February 2012 regarding the allotment of spectrum for access services, it was seen that there were adhoc arrangements in the DoT for opening application windows for allotment/assignment of spectrum administratively for both captive users as well as for other commercial services on provisional basis.
In its audit report on ‘Management of Spectrum’, tabled in Parliament on Monday, the CAG observed DoT had al- so not reviewed pricing of spectrum assigned for captive users administratively, though a panel had recommended for a periodical review of the pricing policy in 2013.
There was no differential pricing for spectrum, depending on features and usage of various spectrum bands assigned to the government users, it said.
The CAG observed that decision-making in DoT was plagued with adhocism and was marked by absence of any permanent mechanism in the department, constituting all government stakeholders. These related to important issues linked to spectrum management, comprising spectrum allocation, assignment and utilisation, as well as re-farming and sharing of spectrum among government users. There were no arrangements in place to study technological developments worldwide for suggesting their deployment in India for the spectrum users.
After the Supreme Court judgement of February 2012 regarding the allotment of spectrum for access services, it was seen that there were adhoc arrangements in the DoT for opening application windows for allotment/assignment of spectrum administratively for both captive users as well as for other commercial services on provisional basis.
In its audit report on ‘Management of Spectrum’, tabled in Parliament on Monday, the CAG observed DoT had al- so not reviewed pricing of spectrum assigned for captive users administratively, though a panel had recommended for a periodical review of the pricing policy in 2013.
There was no differential pricing for spectrum, depending on features and usage of various spectrum bands assigned to the government users, it said.
The CAG observed that decision-making in DoT was plagued with adhocism and was marked by absence of any permanent mechanism in the department, constituting all government stakeholders. These related to important issues linked to spectrum management, comprising spectrum allocation, assignment and utilisation, as well as re-farming and sharing of spectrum among government users. There were no arrangements in place to study technological developments worldwide for suggesting their deployment in India for the spectrum users.
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