Spectral Comedy!

Right from day one, when Cho Ramaswamy mentioned in Thuglak’s annual function about the ‘spectrum scam’, I found it ridiculous that there has been a scam of the order of lakhs of crore rupees! Even more comical is that the minister in question A Raja was in the centre of the scam which apparently happened in 2007 and for two years the opposition did nothing. UPA came back to power in 2009 with even better majority! Now I don’t know what was the stupid provocation for an ‘audit’ and stupid CAG has ruled that there has been a loss of 176,000 crore rupees. I simply couldn’t believe this comedy. If I expected some ‘sanity’ in Hindu, I did get some glimmer when it voiced the need to heed the call.

While denying any wrongdoing, he has insisted that he was persisting with a well-established policy in handing out 2G spectrum on a first-come first-served basis, instead of taking the auction route. This is no doubt true but serious questions relating to procedural irregularities and revenue losses remain.

There definitely would have been administrative corruption but not to the extent that Cho or opposition, forget CAG claimed or to say that it has a 'scam written all over it'. The cat was out of the bag, when report did not single out Raja. So what the heck is really happening? Hindu a few days later ‘concluded’ that flawed process, failed outcome is the moral of the whole ‘story’.

It is now a common conclusion that the procedure for the allocation of spectrum in 2007-08 for the second generation (2G) telecom services was flawed, and grossly so. When there were many more aspirants for the licences than there was frequency spectrum, and an auction should have been the obvious method to decide on the winners, the licences were handed out instead in a non-transparent, first-come-first-served basis and at a low price set seven years earlier. These are the charges that the former Union Minister for Telecommunications, A. Raja, faces, and the ones that forced his resignation.

I ‘intuitively’ felt that something was wrong but did not know to spell out what. Only for a short time. I re-read the news and it was very clear.

Ms. Gupta said the figure of Rs.1.76 lakh crore was reached on the basis of the 3G auction held earlier this year, in which the government mopped up over Rs.67,000 crore. “The quantum of loss is presumptive, we have only tried to quantify the loss,” she added.

The controversy is regarding 2G spectrum and how can they evaluate it based on 3G spectrum? Devil is always in the detail and I am not sure if even the ministers don’t know how to quash this spectral comedy. 2G spectrum is a primitive telephone network with no great ‘applications’ to run on the same. 3G spectrum on the other hand can allow mobile TV, video conferencing etc. Most mobile phone users are unaware, rather don’t care, about the phone network but the operators are not going to give them the option of going for 2G service. So by default it has to be 3G service for ALL USERS.

Without knowing anything, it has been labeled a scam and the minister has resigned as well. To 'quote' the climax of the Vadivelu comedy,

மீனுக்கும் ஜாமீனுக்கும் வித்தியாசமே தெரியாதது போல, 2Gக்கும் 3Gக்கும் வித்தியாசமே தெரியாத கககபோ !@#$% இந்தியாவிலும் தமிழகத்திலும் இருப்பது விந்தையல்ல :D

Update: 23 Nov 2010, 9:00 a.m. IST

I dont know if the minister did not know or was not able to explain, but news on mobile number portability, yesterday 'exposed' the business (d)evils.

The department of telecommunications (DoT) has finally announced the roll-out of mobile number portability (MNP) facility in the country, beginning with its launch in Rohtak district of Haryana on Thursday.

Mobile number portability was initially proposed to be implemented across all metros and in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu by 31 December 2009. The DoT later changed the deadline to 31 March 2010, and subsequently to 30 June 2010.

Mobile phone operators want to keep using the 'existing' backbone, ie BSNL, for years and decades to come, but as mobile subscribers would know it is simply 'not reachable'. No wonder, 3G was indeed rightly auctioned.