Government to ensure spectrum auctions are held on time: Ravi Shankar Prasad

NEW DELHI: Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday that the recently-concluded spectrum auctions were the most successful so far.

"The spectrum auction was a test of the newly-elected NDA regime," he said at an event organised by the industry body Ficci.

Prasad added that the government will ensure that sale of airwaves in future will be done in a timely and transparent manner allowing the industry to prepare well in advance. "We ensured the defence vacated spectrum and proved the rumours of spectrum being scarce wrong," he added. All auctions in future will be held on time and in a transparent manner, he added.

Reiterating his stand on net neutrality, Prasad said the access to the Internet should be non-discriminatory and that the government was awaiting the report of the telecom department committee as well as the regulator's recommendation on the matter.