Allegations around allocation of microwave spectrum baseless, says Sinha

Under attack for giving away valuable telecom spectrum without auction, the government Wednesday strongly defended administrative allocation of microwave spectrum, saying the bidding rules do not apply to backhaul airwaves, which are critical for maintaining connectivity.

With Congress calling allocation of microwave spectrum a scam, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha cited the 2012 Supreme Court ruling, which had cancelled allocations done on the first-come-first-serve basis, to say that backhaul spectrum was not covered under the judgment.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report tabled in Parliament last week said microwave access (MWA) spectrum was allocated to a telecom operator in 2015 on first-come-first-served (FCFS) basis in contravention to the recommendations of a DoT-constituted committee, while 101 applications for microwave spectrum were pending with the government.

"I want to say that the SC order of 2012 was about access spectrum and not backhaul spectrum. It .