Conclude 2G auction by June: Uninor to govt

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Telecom service provider Uninor on Wednesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking it to direct the government to conclude the 2G auction by June 2.

"We have filed a review petition in the Supreme Court this afternoon," said Sigve Brekke, managing director of Uninor.

The Supreme Court last month ordered cancellation of 122 licences, including 22 of Uninor, issued in 2008 and had asked the affected firms to shut shop in four months.

It had also directed the Department of Telecom (DoT) to conduct an auction for giving out these licences.

The government had thereafter filed a review petition in the Supreme Court seeking extension of the deadline saying that it needed at least 400 days to conduct an auction.

"It is important that the government is focused on the process of remedying the 2008 process through auction and not allow this to be derailed by parties whose primary interest is to ensure lesser competition in the market," Brekke added.

He also reiterated the firm's earlier arguments that the auction should be conducted in two phases and only new players should be allowed to participate in the first phase while the older players can participate in the auction in the second phase.

Uninor is a joint venture between Norway's Telenor and India's Unitech and has been adding customers, even after the top court's ruling and currently has almost 40 million customers across the country.