The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has urged the government to implement the recommendations given by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) concerning the upcoming auctions in February 2015. COAI believes that conducting the next round of auctions with inadequate spectrum would lead to risk exposure to the businesses of telecom operators as well as the investments made by them. This is because the spectrum which is up for auctions in 2015-16 is already being used by telecom operators across circles and failure to buy back frequency airwaves will lead to disruption of services on their networks.

TRAI had highlighted the implications of inadequate spectrum sale in its recent recommendations which included taking back part of spectrum from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in the 900 MHz band, surrender of idle frequency airwaves by the defence and availability of spectrum in the 2100 MHz band. However, the Telecom Commission rejected these recommendations and therefore, COAI has turned to the government for their implementation.