Sterling Infotech makes Rs 2,500 crore offer for 5 MHz of 20 MHz WLL spectrum in all circles

Our eFE Bureaus

New Delhi/Chennai, April 26 : THERE is a new twist in the limited mobility tale. The spar between basic and cellular operators over the limited mobility issue took a new turn on Thursday with the NRI corporate raider C Sivasankaran making an offer to pay Rs 2,500 crore for five Mhz of the 20 Mhz spectrum reserved for wireless in local loop (WLL) mobility “to end the limited mobility impasse.”

Even as the Group of Ministers on Telcom and IT Convergence (GoT-IT) is expected to give its report — ostensibly in favour of limited mobility to the government on Thursday —- Mr Sivasankaran has come up with this salvo to rub in the “telecom scam” point.

Today, in letters written to the prime minister, finance minister and the chairman, Telecom Commission, the Sterling Infotech Group has offered to buy the spectrum and has hoped that “This offer will resolve the WLL limited mobility controversy while also yielding the government a sum of Rs 10,000 crore for allocation of the available 20 MHz of spectrum, which is going free of cost to basic service operators (BSOs), if the current policy goes through.”

Criticising the “free” allocation of spectrum to basic operators, Mr Sivasankaran said that Rs 7,000 crore had been paid by cellular operators for a similar spectrum for their GSM (Global Standard for Mobile Communications) operations.

It is alleged that the government has lost a whopping Rs 6,000 crore by allocating free WLL spectrum to BSOs and took a further hit of Rs 5,000 crore due to no bidder responding to the offer of fourth licenses in cellular circles, which opened on March 23. Mr Sivasankaran said that the free allocation of spectrum unfairly tilts the level playing field and also implies a huge loss to the government. “The allocation of the spectrum, a scarce national resource, should not be done at the cost of the public’s exchequer,” he said. He has argued against allowing mobility to fixed service providers, or fixed services to cellular operators. Instead, he made a case for introduction of a third category of license to provide wireless mobile services based on code division multiple access (CDMA) technology.