Auction for Cellphone Bandwidth Was Rigged, India Says

An auction to provide cellphone services in India's booming market was rigged to favor a few companies, the government asserted Nov 16.

The comptroller and auditor general of India say in a 96-page report that the agency in charge of cellular licenses, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, arbitrarily moved up deadlines in a 2008 auction of new bandwidth for phone operators. The Communications Ministry also rejected calls from the prime minister and the Ministry of Law for greater scrutiny and awarded licenses to operators in a way that "lacked transparency and fairness," the report says. The questionable practices cost the Indian government 1.76 trillion rupees ($39 billion) in revenue, auditors say. The report, issued after a nine-month investigation by the auditor and the Central Bureau of Intelligence, seems to focus on the Communications Ministry and a handful of operators, including Reliance Communications.