The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has refuted allegations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) that the former favoured Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) in the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auctions in 2010. It has also defended its decision in converting RJIL’s internet service provider (ISP) licence to a unified licence. 

In a reply to CAG’s recent audit report, DoT has stated that it had not breached the guidelines mentioned in the notice inviting applications for the BWA spectrum auction. DoT has further stated that the policy decisions taken by it were timely and in fulfillment of mandate given by the Cabinet and taken with the approval of the former telecom minister. 

CAG in its recent audit report asserted that DoT had allowed Infotel Broadband Services Private Limited (IBSPL), to acquire pan-India broadband spectrum at a price, which was 5,000 times its net worth of Rs 25 million. IBSPL was later acquired by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and was subsequently renamed as RJIL. Apart from this, CAG alleged that DoT had favoured RJIL by allowing the company to offer voice services for Rs 16.58 billion, a price telecom operators paid in 2001 when the sector was not mature, thereby giving RJIL an undue advantage.