Telecom majors register 2G protest

Beginning 10.30 in the morning,the four telecom chiefs spent the day meeting Pranab Mukherjee,Sharad Pawar,P Chidambaram,Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Kapil Sibal,all members of the EGoM,to explain how the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI-recommended base price for 2G spectrum auction will hit the sector. They were scheduled to meet Law and Justice Minister Salman Khurshid too later in the day.

After announcing the full-year results of Bharti Airtel,Sunil Mittal told reporters that the TRAI recommendations would be catastrophic. This has been the most destructive period of regulatory environment I have seen in 16 years, he told reporters.

Idea Chairman Birla said that at the price recommended by TRAI,it did not make sense for anyone to participate in the bids. Consumer may have to pay more, he said.

TRAI has suggested a base price of Rs 3,622 crore for one megahertz MHz for pan-India spectrum,which is around 10 times higher than the price at which 2G licences bundled with 4.4 MHz spectrum were allocated in 2008.

In a statement,Baksaas,Group CEO of Telenor,said,We urge the Indian government to take its rightful political initiative now.