The Indian Express reports that the Department of Telecom’s Wireless Planning Cell (WPC) has recommended a beauty parade for allocation of 3G spectrum; Beauty parades will take into account various criteria like number of subscribers, coverage area and number of base stations. The TRAI had recommended that the DoT auction spectrum.
In case of a beauty parade the efficacy of selection criteria can be questioned: somebody’s going to be left out in this process, there will be an opportunity cost, and operators may seek legal recourse. At the same time, if something like “number of subscribers” becomes a selection criteria, then consumers are likely to benefit since there will be a rush to grab more subscribers – thus achieving one of DoT’s goals of increasing rural mobile penetration. In case of an auction, does the cost of spectrum make winning a bid, a loss? Remember there’s an additional cost of infrastructure, and for the users – the handsets are costlier. Either way, the DoT has a tough decision…
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