The bench had said allowing those who were unsuccessful and had not participated in the 2G GSM spectrum auction to continue with operation would generate more litigation. It had said auction will have to be done for all those licences for the 2G spectrum for which letters of intent were issued on January 10, 2008 and were quashed by the apex court's February 2, 2012 judgement. The bench had also said that it was only concerned with the 1800 MHz and 800 MHz band and not with 900 MHz band. The apex court on January 14 had extended till February 4 the January 18 deadline for existing operators of 2G spectrum to carry out operations. The deadline was further extended till further orders. Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), which was one of the PIL petitioners on whose plea the 2G licences were cancelled, had said existing operators should not be allowed to continue as consumers have the option to move to other service providers. The apex court had on November 27 last year said that the telecom operators, whose licences were cancelled by it but continued to operate due to delay on government's part to hold fresh auction of 2G spectrum, might have to pay for using the radiowaves on the basis of current price. The apex court had on February 2, 2012, quashed 122 2G licences while allowing telecom operators to run their services for four months after which the order was to become operative. The date expired on May 2, 2012 but the apex court allowed the operators to continue providing services as the Centre failed to put the spectrum on auction which was done only on November 12, 2012.
