The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and the defence ministry have been able to thrash out their differences over the spectrum allocation, which has been hanging fire for the last four years. This follows a meeting between defence minister Manohar Parrikar and telecommunication minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Possibly, they were nudged to do so by prime minister Narendra Modi. Soon after taking over as PM, Modi had publicly mentioned the case of government departments fighting one another and even in courts of law. This dispute might have been at the back of his mind when he thought aloud on the subject. It is immaterial whether the DoT or the defence ministry has benefited more from the deal.
What is clear is that the whole telecom sector will benefit with cellular companies and, thereby, the people getting better bandwidth and, hence, better Internet-based facilities. The defence ministry’s plan to have a sophisticated, dedicated fibre optic line linking all its establishments will now come to fruition. In other words, everybody is a gainer in this deal. The fear that there will be a shortage of spectrum for mobile companies has become a thing of the past. It is significant that Parrikar took the initiative to settle the dispute within a fortnight of taking over as defence minister. The settlement should set an example for other government departments.
The government has a commitment made to the people that it will provide “maximum governance” at minimum cost. This purpose will be defeated if government departments waste their energy in fighting court battles over petty issues. Come to think of it, the country would have benefited a lot if the dispute over the defence ministry shedding its control of some 3G-level spectrum and the DoT granting it some spectrum reserved for CDMA services was resolved a few years ago.
With the amicable settlement, the government will now be able to allocate additional 3G spectrum to cellular companies in a few months and raise resources for national development.
