The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is learnt to have blamed cartelisation by telecom players behind the failure of recent spectrum auction and pointed at the conduct of Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Idea and Tata Teleservices in this regard.
CAG is learnt to have communicated this to the telecom ministry seeking its comments in a draft report. The Comptroller and Auditor General had earlier calculated the spectrum allocation to the companies without auction in 2008 caused the government a presumptive loss of Rs 1,76,000 crore. In 2012, there was muted response from the industry to bidding for spectrum freed from cancellation of 122 licences.
