?Few telcos would have taken part in 2G auctions?

Why not auctions for 2G?

Auction is good only if the number of participants and the spectrum being put up are sizeable. Here, after meeting contractual commitments, very little was left to auction and few operators would have participated in any such activity. Holding auctions frequently is also not a good practice.

Telecom minister responded to an FE report that 2G and 3G can?t be compared as they are as different as PDS and basmati rice. But you have indexed 2G spectrum price to 3G. Why?

Having concluded that auctions are not feasible, what was the option left? If I had indexed 2G spectrum price lower than 3G, you would have accused me of underselling. Still, we are aware that the two bands are different; for that, we would conduct a separate study on pricing.

Linking 2G and 3G spectrum is fine now, but what happens later? In 2008, licences given at 2001 prices had created a controversy.

We would advise government from time to time on pricing spectrum.