Decision goes beyond court’s purpose, punishes wrong people, hurts international image, and will raise prices for Indian consumers

Op/Ed Commentary: Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Feb. 6 – One day they’ll make a film about this case – corrupt bidding, jailed ministers, a vindictive judge and a cast of 80 million telecom subscribers. India’s Supreme Court on Thursday axed all 122 2G telecom licenses and forced a new bidding process on a government-approved tender that saw both domestic and international telecom investors spend billions on rolling out 2G telecom networks on a national scale serving some 60 million users. Those networks are now to be dismantled within four months.

As anyone familiar with conducting business in emerging markets knows, often it’s a case of two steps forward and one step back. It’s a frustrating process, but one gets there in the end. Yet in this case, the Supreme Court has taken upon itself to not just challenge the government, but to also mete out punishments in the form of fines to operators who thought they were acting in good faith; placing itself in the position of authority as determining market prices and effectively ending India’s benefit of having the lowest mobile phone user costs in the world. Continue reading →