Government should protect mobile consumers

This article authored by me has appeared in the Financial express on 20th Nov 2012. While there are quite a few theories around why the 2G auction failed, it is increasingly clear that the Government needs to be less aggressive and help in overall welfare of the consumers for sustaining the Mobile revolution and the vision stated in the NTP-2012.

 

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Too greedy (2G)Auction?

So the auction has finally ended, fetching only 10K crore as against the target of  30K to 40K. This auction ended in 2 days as against over 30 days during the 3G auction. Almost all the telcos are bleeding and things are going to get worse. Are we staring at M&As to rescue the Telcos?

More auctions on the anvil (1) The unsold spectrum in this auction , (2) Spectrum not put-up for auction from the orginal  122 quashed licencess (3)  Refarming of 900Mhz

Perhaps time for the Goverment and the regulator to serioulsy re-look at the mechanism used for arriving at the base price for auctions.