SC again clears the stay order for Spectrum Auction

Supreme Court has cleared the stay order given for the first ever spectrum auction process started by NTA. This is the second time the Supreme court scrapped the stay order for the same spectrum auction.

The first ever spectrum auction now is for the residual spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz. It includes all the remaining spectrum in those bands. Before, Nta used to provide spectrum to the telcos directly with the license.

With the scrapping of the stay order, the spectrum auction process will move ahead. This time, Advocate Subash Lamichane had filed a petition for the process citing it to hamper competition in the telecom sector.

Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher JBR and Judge Bam Kumar Shrestha had come to the decision to clear the Spectrum auction process again.

Spectrum Auction and Supreme Court row

NTA had called for the spectrum auction in residual frequency bands of 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2100 MHz bands, first on Poush 4, 2075. Here are the major incidents for this spectrum auction process.

• CG telecom went to Supreme Court as they will be deprived of the once allocated frequency spectrum and succeed for a stay order. Read more here.
• NTA went to SC to vacate the stay order, which comes as per their petition.
• NTA started the auction process with the new deadline.
• SC again stays the auction process due to new petition, on Magh 16.
• SC again scraps the stay order for the auction process.

The main intention of spectrum auction is to maximize the revenue out of the valuable spectrum resource to the Government. Telecom operators also do not want to miss the opportunity to grab more spectrum resources, to gain competitive advantages over other operators. So, they have put their utmost effort either lobbying or filing a petition in Court.

To participate in the spectrum auction, it requires the telco to have got the unified license and cleared all the dues. Due to which, only limited telcos can participate in the auction process. Out of the six telcos, only four have the unified (basic telephony) license, which are Ntc, Ncell, UTL, and Smart Telecom. UTL and Smart Telecom have some dues pending to clear to the regulator, NTA.

Now that, Supreme Court has already decided to recover the Capital gain Taxes from Ncell and Axiata. So Ncell also has some pending dues under their head. We can not tell whether Ncell can participate in the spectrum auction.

• Residual spectrum auction again halted.
• NTA spectrum auction process for residual spectrum, find the price and remaining spectrum.