Some telecom service providers are not using the spectrum allocated to them efficiently, a fresh audit by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has found.

According to the audit report, while one operator had been serving 9.1 million mobile phone users, using 10MHz spectrum in the Delhi circle, another service provider had been catering to only 2.6 million subscribers using 12.4MHz of spectrum, half of which was in 900 MHz and another half in 1,800 MHz band. The same audit found that a third operator was catering to just 2.85 million users, using just 4.4MHz spectrum in the 1,800 MHz band.

The DoT said in an internal note that telecom providers had either been using spectrum extremely efficiently through the use of better technologies or they were compromising on service standards set by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

DoT added that it was also possible that telecom service providers had provided inaccurate data on their subscriber bases.

The DoT note added, "It has already cost the Government very dearly as huge amount of spectrum, valued at tens of thousands of crores. being rendered waste while the Government is starved of its dies resources."

Telecom firms like Airtel and Idea had asked the department for additional spectrum, but these firms had surprisingly declined to participate in the spectrum auctions.

The audit report could discourage the government from further cutting the reserve price for spectrum in the next round of auction.