The new Indian union telecom minister, Kapil Sibal has now decided to crack down on the telcos that have won licences. More than 80 licences might be identified as ineligible to have won and about 38 companies are allegedly falling under the category of not meeting roll-out obligations.
Sibal said quite clearly that there has been a violation of laid-out obligations in awarding the licences and will be sending out show cause notices to companies who have suppressed facts and enjoyed undue privileges.
Sibal also said that most of the companies have self-certified but have failed to conform to the Memorandum of Association (MoA) which has helped them take advantage of first-come-first-serve basis in winning the 2G spectrum.
Sibal said, "We have decided to send notices to 85 companies. We will give them 60 days to respond. We will take action based on merit and see if the memorandum of association and equity conditions has been fulfilled or not," Sibal said at a press conference.
It won't come as a surprise if the Telecom Ministry goes ahead and cancels the licences of those involved in wrong-doing.
Some names are coming up such as S-TeL, Uninor, Loop and Videocon that are said to have not met the eligibility norms.
If these companies lose the licence, it would be a critical situation as Uninor has already rolled out services. Now, what has to be questioned is why the government didn't take action before these companies rolled out services?
On the subscribers' front, now they might have to use Mobile Number Portability to switch on to other companies.
Sibal quite firmly said, "The time has come for a transparent system which is very essential for a stable telecom sector."
Earlier, CAG report had found that Swan telecom was a front company for Reliance communications. Now, this matter has been referred to Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
I am India's expert in strategic defence and the father of India's strategic program including the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program and I have repeatedly said in my blog titled 'Nuclear Supremacy for India Over U.S.', which can be found by a Yahoo search with the title, that there is no substitute for full-yield explosive tests of nuclear weapons.
In a press release dated November 24, 2010 I said: Besides C.I.A.-RAW disinformation about R. Chidambaram's sense of superiority to white countries in designing thermonuclear weapons being responsible for the failed 1998 thermonuclear weapon test, Russian and French help has been offered with thermonuclear weapons designs and to test the weapon(s) in a laboratory -- so as to bring India's strategic program at its most vital core under control of white countries and keep the inferior Indian niggers in their place.
In a press release dated November 26, 2010 I said: When I say there is no substitute for full yield explosive tests of nuclear weapons, I say this from a purely engineering point of view and not for demonstrating to the world that our weapons work. As I said in a letter to the press after the 1998 tests when R. Chidambaram claimed that his computer models enable him to build higher yield weapons which need not undergo explosive tests, 'One could not legitimately rely on an automobile engine developed on that basis if your life depended on its working the very first time it is ever used, much less a nuclear weapon'. This applies to both computer models and laboratory models. What happens in a high energy lab is a highly imperfect laboratory model of a nuclear weapon which does not take account of a multitude of things. If computer models and laboratory models were sufficient, there will be no need for flight tests of missiles and jet aircraft, etc.
The Physics of what happens in a nuclear explosion cannot adequately be replicated in a high energy lab. Laboratory models of missiles and jet aircraft may not have this deficiency but laboratory models of nuclear weapons do.
In a press release dated November 29, 2010 I said: It is now being put out that a "fix" has been applied to the 1998 failed thermonuclear weapon design and there is no need for an explosive test of the "fixed" design because the designers have "confidence" it will work. But it is a very foolish designer who does not test his "fix" with an explosive test. Didn't R. Chidambaram have confidence in his 1998 design which failed? There has been no "fix" until the weapon is shown to work in an explosive test -- shown as much to the designer as to the world. A designer who says it is not necessary is too stupid to design even a toaster, much less a nuclear weapon.
Satish Chandra