New Delhi: Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today said comparing current telecom policy with that of 2008 is not fair and charged the Opposition of giving “misinformation” in this regard.
Reuters
His comments came as a clarification to senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj’s remark on 2G spectrum earlier in the day. Defending the demand for cancellation of coal block allocations and auctioning of the same, Swaraj said BJP’s stand on 2G spectrum allocation was vindicated by the recent re-auction which has a base price of Rs 14,000 crore.
“…Fact of the matter is that they don’t tell people of India that the what was done in 2008 was under UASL licence. What is being done in 2012 is under Unified Licences (UL). They are two different licences.
“There the licence was bundled with the spectrum. Here the licence is segregated from spectrum. So how do you compare a regime of 2008 with a regime of 2012,” Sibal told reporters after a Group of Ministers meeting.
He added that there it is one technology that could be used either GSM or CDMA. “Here (2012) its technology neutral. Here there is sharing of spectrum. Here there is mortgage of spectrum. Its a whole new regime,” said Sibal.
“This kind of lack of information or misinformation should not be fed to people of India. That’s why we want a debate in Parliament,” Sibal said.
PTI
