The Telecom Regulatory Authority of Indian is in favor of market-based determination of prices of 2G licenses. The statement from the regulatory body came after the criticism of the union minister for Communication and IT, Mr A. Raja, on the issue of allotting spectrum without auction.

The chairman of TRAI, Nripendra Mishra said that the license should be allotted on the basis of the prevailing market prices. There is a need to develop a mechanism to capture the market prices for the license, for the maximum earning of state exchequer and bring more transparency in the system. He disclosed that the government had not asked for its views on spectrum allocation.

The body had apprised th government many times regarding its displeasure on the first-come-first-served basis policy, adopted by DoT for 2G spectrum allocation. Mr. Mishra was speaking at the CII's conference on 'India Telecom Landscape 2012' He referred the Section 2.73 of its recommendations of 2007 and said, "In today's dynamism and unprecedented growth of telecom sector, the entry fee determined then (2001) is also not the realistic price for obtaining a license.

Perhaps it needs to be reassessed through a market mechanism."