By R. Jai Krishna
NEW DELHI--The Indian government will ask the Supreme Court to
extend the deadline for conducting a much-awaited auction of
telecommunications bandwidth, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said
Tuesday.
Mr. Sibal said the auctioneer selected by the government has
given a schedule for holding the auction.
"We are going to move the Supreme Court, place before them (the
judges) the facts and what the government has done, and also place
before them that in terms of this schedule it isn't possible
perhaps to complete the auction by Aug. 31," Mr. Sibal told
reporters.
India is auctioning the airwave after the Supreme Court earlier
this year revoked the telecom licenses of several companies, citing
corruption in their allotment in 2008. The court also ordered
reallocation of the spectrum to be surrendered by the affected
companies through an auction.
The auction is crucial for companies such as Norway's Telenor
ASA (TEL.OS), Russia's Sistema JSFC (AFKS.RS) and for local
operators such as Idea Cellular Ltd. (532822.BY).
The court has cancelled all the licenses of the Indian joint
venture of Telenor and most of Sistema's unit. It also revoked a
few permits of Idea.
These companies can provide services under the cancelled
licensed until Sept. 7, but will need to purchase spectrum through
the auction, which the court said must be held by Aug. 31, to
continue operations further.
Mr. Sibal didn't elaborate on the revised auction timeline that
the government is looking at or whether an extension of the
deadline will allow the affected companies to continue offering
services beyond Sept. 7.
Meanwhile, a senior government official told reporters the
auction is likely to begin in November.
The Department of Telecommunications is likely to issue
"information memorandum" related to the auction on Aug. 27, the
official said.
He declined to be named.
On Friday, the federal cabinet set the base price for the
auction at several times more than what the companies paid in 2008
to buy the licenses that came bundled with spectrum.
Write to R. Jai Krishna at krishna.jai@dowjones.com
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