Queueing up

Over the last one year, the problem was one of freeing air waves from the defence forces to improve civilian telecom services. Even as this problem is being resolved, there is a new one—that of allocation.

The Telecom Ministry, headed by A. Raja (above), is planning to give priority to new players over the vacated frequencies against the existing players who have applied for more. What does it mean?

Industry players view this as yet another move of the government to delay allocation to new players. Some even say that it is just a ploy by the government to create a rift between players.Interestingly, this move comes in the backdrop of telecom regulator TRAI’s recommendation to go ahead with the allocation of available spectrum to existing players.

Surely, the delays are avoidable.