Sunil Batra

Sunil Batra
New Delhi, Dec 29 (PTI) Indian Telecom sector grew by
leaps and bounds during 2010 but its performance was
overshadowed by the allegations of massive scam in 2G spectrum
allocation that has already marred the image of United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's second term.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) may have
computed a presumptive loss of Rs. 1,76,000 crore in the
issue of spectrum and licenses but its political implications
have threatened to linger on in the coming year.
The winter session of Parliament was washed out on the
issue and questions still remain over the fate of the Budget
session if the Government-Opposition stalemate on setting up a
Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the scam is not
not resolved.
Allegations about spectrum allocation have been in the
air for over a year now now. But all hell broke loose after
the publication of the tapped conversations of corporate
lobbyist Niira Radia with various personalities on how she
apparently worked to ensure Telecom portfolio for A Raja after
the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
If proved, the Telecom scam may turn out to be the
biggest India has ever seen. It has pushed to the back burner
the remarkable performance of the sector which added up to 20
million new subscribers every month. There are already over
700 million phone subscribers in India.
The allegations of how companies benefited from lobbying
with the Telecom Ministry comes at a time when the industry is
standing on the threshold of a new technology--3G, the
spectrum for which was auctioned earlier this year.
It was based on the prices discovered during the 3G
spectrum (radio-waves) auction that government auditor CAG
separately arrived at the conclusion that the exchequer lost
Rs 1.76 lakh crore in potential revenue by selling 2G spectrum
in 2008 at 2001 prices.
The allegations have already claimed their first scalp,
with Raja resigning as Telecom Minister.
This was followed by the raids of India's premier
investigation agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),
on the premises of Raja as well as his close aides, including
his former personal secretary, a former Telecom Commission
Chairman and a former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI) Chairman and some senior officials of the Department of
Telecom.
The alleged scam led to a change of guard at Sanchar
Bhawan, which houses the Telecom Ministry, with trusted
Congress leader Kapil Sibal, another lawyer, taking over from
Raja.
And within days, administrative changes were initiated,
including sending showcause notices to all new operators for
allegedly submitting wrong information to bag licenses.

Even before the leak of taped conversations that
Radia had with politicians, bureaucrats, industrialists and
journalists, the crisis was building, but it was the tapes
that fuelled it into a raging fire.
The phone conversations between corporate lobbyist Radia
and politicians, particularly Raja, may complicate things
further for the former Telecom Minister and the government.
The 2G spectrum controversy, however, has failed to so
far bring the sector to its knees. New subscribers are being
added by the millions every month and next generation mobile
technology and the countrywide roll-out of new services like
mobile number portability are on the anvil.
During 2010, 3G took everyone by surprise as the auction
of spectrum and wireless broadband frequencies surpassed all
expectations, resulting in a whopping revenue of Rs 1.05 lakh
crore for the government.
On the 3G front, some operators have already launched
services, while others are in the process of doing so. The
subscribers will, however, not be able to use video calling
facility, one of the main attractions of 3G, till operators
put in place technology for real-time monitoring, given the
security risk.
Nevertheless, 3G is likely to take telephony to a new
level, as operators are promising high-speed mobile broadband
and many more additional value-added services on mobile
devices.
Tariffs for the existing services touched new lows in
2010, with some operators offering half-a-paisa per second
call rates to add more and more subscribers to their base.
Even 3G is likely to be a low-tariff affair, despite the
massive sums paid by the operators to bag spectrum under the
auction.
Another user-centric service, Mobile Number Portability
(MNP), was launched recently, though after missing several
deadlines. The service is bound to force the service providers
to offer best quality services to retain subscribers. MNP
allows subscribers to change service providers while retaining
their mobile number.
The service, which is available only in Haryana at
present, is likely to become available on a commercial basis
across the country from the middle of next month.
Another issue that remained in focus during the year was
that of Research In Motion being asked to provide facilities
for interception of encrypted data received and sent using its
high-end Blackberry handsets for security reasons.
Canada-based Research in Motion has been maintaining that
the company is unable to access mails sent using its
Enterprise service, but Indian security agencies are still
insisting on an interception facility. The matter is not yet
closed and the company has been given time to comply with the
authorities' demand till next month. PTI SKB
RCJ