Wasted spectrum

Telecom auction fails price discovery test

Once again, a telecommunication spectrum auction in India has not met its assigned numbers. The short auction of some spectrum, over only two days, brought in around Rs 80,000 crore, of which about a fifth is to be made available before the end of this fiscal year. Government officials have insisted that the auction has brought in more than they expected. But that doesn’t mean much, given how much spectrum was left unsold in the first telecom auction in almost five years. Wasted spectrum helps nobody. It is an opportunity cost for the economy that needs to be taken into