Ethical issues in telecom licensing: liberalization of Indian telecom

Abstract

The big business houses of the country and many multinational corporations had foreseen huge opportunity in deregulation and consequential opening up of telecommunication service sector in India. The telecom operating licenses in India were granted to private sector by the government starting from midnineties of the last century. The political executives as well as civil servants had lot of discretionary powers in granting of these licenses and making subsequent change in them. A nexus has always been alluded to in popular press between politicians, businessmen and civil servants to the detriment of public good. There has been scope in granting of favors to the operators in matter of telecom policy and licensing. This paper describes the stages of telecom liberalization in India, the industry administrative structure and various policy and licensing changes affected by the government and consequential allegation of corruption and undue favors given to private operators. The paper goes on to describe the various institutions which probe and punish ethical misconducts and certain corrective steps undertaken by the government to bring in transparency and fair play in matter of allocation of spectrum and granting of telecom licenses.